Tera Howell and The Weasley Twins year 4
by BrokenAngel363
Summary: We join Tera as she starts her 4th year at Hogwarts. This year will be filled with Triwizard moments, dancing, moments of curiosity and even moments of longing. Tera has a lot going on this year, and with Malfoy making an annoyance of himself around every corner, can she find out what her boys have been keeping from her since the end of summer? Read and review. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Wow… I do believe that this might just be the largest chapter yet in my Tera series…. I hope you can bear with me, I want to get Tera's story told, and though it might take me a while, I DO plan on finishing the series. This is the first chapter of year four, and things are hopefully going to fall into place for our favorite little Hufflepuff. Want to know the answers to any questions you may have thus far? Continue reading and hopefully your questions will be answers. Little bit impatient? Drop me a PM if you have any questions, and please leave a Review! I love to know what you guys think! Thanks guys and gals! Much love to ElephantShoes who has been a faithful reader since she stumbled upon my stories months ago. You are the best and I thank you so much for your faithfulness to this series of stories! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah (did I spell that right?) and whatever else you might celebrate. And that all of you have a very Happy New Year.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; if I did there would have been a lot less deaths, and more happy endings. I do however own this story and my Characters Tera, her family and her pets. There are some excerpts from the book in this chapter, but I tried to make them from Tera's point of view and may have changed very tiny details in the story itself. No hating, just read and enjoy the Tera moments in their random abundance. I hope you all enjoy, and leave me a review. Much love to you, now enjoy the story.**

**Chapter One**

**Quidditch Cup and Moments of Terror**

Tera looked up at the clear blue sky from the comfort of her garden, knowing from the boy's letters that Harry would be arriving at the burrow today. She really hoped he had enjoyed the tin of cookies she had sent along with her birthday present for him, she had wanted to send him a cake but after hearing that Hermione and Ron were both doing the same she decided to instead send sugar cookies in the shape of his favorite things like a snitch, broom, wand, and there was even one shaped like a hippogriff.

Heading inside she dodged her brother, ducking under his flailing arms as he chased his pet owl Loki around the house, trying to get back his watch that Loki had stolen, the little owl liked shiny things a bit more than your average owl. Chuckling Tera pulled her brownies out of the oven, setting them out to cool next to her thumbprint cookies and putting her special walnut chocolate chip cookies in the oven to bake.

Callum came barreling through the kitchen, nearly tripping over his sister before hooting triumphantly, he had finally caught his owl. "Sorry about that Ter, been chasing this blasted bird for an hour now." Callum said, leaning down to help his sister off the floor, a sheepish smile on his face.

Tera took her brother's hand with a laugh as he helped her back onto her feet. "Don't worry about it bugga-boo. No harm, no foul." She said, smiling up at him, only slightly annoyed that he had hit another growth spurt and now towered over her at 5'7.

"Ter, I really wish you'd stop calling me bugga-boo. It's such a baby nickname." Callum whined.

"Cal, I gave you that nickname when you were a baby. I refuse to change it now, so just deal with it." She said with a smile, turning she left her brother to his own devices and went into the living room, plopping down on the couch next to her grandmother's rocking chair. Her grandmother was currently knitting hats and mittens to send with her and Callum when school started up, three sets of needles working magically while she herself knit with the fourth pair. "Hey nana."

"Hello dear." Rosella replied with a kind smile to her granddaughter.

"I'm just coming in to tell you I'm going over to the Weasley's for dinner tonight, Mrs. Weasley invited me this morning. She says I'll finally get to meet Charlie." Tera said with a smile, remembering all the things the twins had told them about their second oldest brother. "Oh and Harry's going to be getting there soon too."

"Okay dear, enjoy yourself. And do give this to Harry for me, heaven knows the boy needs things that actually fit him, and aren't hand-me-downs from that lump of a boy that's his Muggle cousin." Rosella said, handing Tera a pair of crimson and gold mittens and hat with the Gryffindor Lion on them, along with HJP hand stitched into them.

"Oh I'm sure he will love these nana." Tera replied with a smile before hugging her grandmother and heading upstairs to change out of her overalls and into something nicer. Looking through her closet Tera finally settled on a long loose fitting light purple sleeveless shirt with beading around the neckline, her favorite pair of blue jeans and a pair of sandals. She took her hair out of its ponytail and brushed it out, pushing it out of her face with a simple headband with a purple penny blossom on it and putting in her favorite pair of silver star earrings.

With a smile at her reflection Tera quickly made her way down the stair and pulled the cookies out of the oven, putting them on her quick cooling rack before setting aside a small plate of everything for her family and packing the rest away in a basket and putting a towel over it. She then threw on her oldest cloak and pulled the hood up over her hair, knowing how dirty travel by Floo powder could be. Grabbing a pinch of Floo powder Tera tossed it into the fireplace and watched as the flames turned emerald green. Stepping into the flames she yelled "The Burrow!" and she was off, she really did hate the spinning sensation, but it was the quickest way for her to travel, so she put up with it.

Once she stopped spinning she stepped out into the Weasley's kitchen, pulling her cloak off she folded it and placed it to the side of the fireplace and dusted her hands off. "Mrs. Weasley, I'm here!" Tera yelled as she set down her basket on the counter and walked into the living room.

"Tera, I'm so glad you could make it!" said Mrs. Weasley with a smile, pulling the poor girl into a bone crushing hug before leading the girl to the couch. "Please, sit down. Tell me how your summer has been. My, you sure have grown since the last time I saw you, become quite the beautiful young woman. The boys will all be fawning over you." Mrs. Weasley chuckled.

Tera blushed lightly with a smile, still not quite used to how her body had changed over the summer. Gone was the figure of an adolescent girl and in its place was the figure of a woman, she had also grown another few inches, though she was still smaller than almost all of her friends. "Thank you. And my summer has been very good. Mum and me went to Paris for a weekend and I got to buy all sorts of new clothes and while I was there I even did my Christmas shopping. Then I got to get a whole bunch of new books, both muggle and not, and mum got me a be-spelled purse the can literally hold anything." She said, holding up said purse which was black with purple and silver designs on it.

"Well that sounds wonderful." Mrs. Weasley said with a smile, turning her head as two sets of pounding feet came down the stairs. "That will be the girls."

Tera turned her head and smiled as Ginny and Hermione both came down the stairs, smiles on their faces as they saw their Hufflepuff friend.

"Tera!" they both yelled, running and tackling the poor girl.

"It's nice to see you too. Now… get off…. Can't… breathe…." she said around a laugh.

Both girls let go, laughing sheepishly. "Sorry Tera."

Tera got up and hugged each girl in turn, smiling as she did so. "I have missed you two. Oh, I have a book you might like Hermione." She said, pulling out of her small purse a large book all about how different accents can affect how spells work.

"Oh gosh! Thank you, this looks so intriguing!" Hermione gushed with a huge smile.

"I thought you might like it, I saw it and thought of you. I also got this for you Ginny." She said, pulling out a penny blossom hair clip the color of the noonday sky.

"Oh, it's so pretty. Thank you Tera." Ginny said, pinning it in her hair.

Tera smiled; glad they both liked her little gifts. "Oh! And for you Mrs. Weasley, I actually made this… so it might not be as good as something you could make… but I hope you still like it." Tera said, pulling out a cornflower blue scarf with white swirling designs on it. There were a few spots that had a bump to show a mess up, but overall it was a pretty nice scarf.

"Thank you dear. It's beautiful, and the fact that you made it yourself makes it even more so." Mrs. Weasley said with a teary smile, pulling the blushing girl into a motherly hug.

Tera smiled, so glad that Mrs. Weasley liked it, she had worked hard on it for a little over a week and had been please but a little apprehensive about the finished result. But seeing Mrs. Weasley's teary smile made Tera feel like she had given her something she would cherish for a very long time. "I'm so glad you like it." Tera mumbled into her shoulder.

"Hey mum – oh, who is this?" came a voice from the stairs, followed closely by a pair of feet coming down the stairs.

Mrs. Weasley let go of the girl and smiled, turning her around. "Tera, I'd like you to meet my second oldest son Charlie. Charlie this is the wonderful girl I've told you about."

"Oh, so you are the famous Tera. I've heard loads about you. My whole family basically loves you." Charlie said with a chuckle, holding out his hand to shake.

Tera smiled, shaking his hand, which was warm and calloused from his work with dragons. "I've heard lots about you too. How is it working with Dragons?"

"Ruff brutes they are, but once you get to know them and figure out all their quirks it's no different than working with any other animal, other than this one breathes fire and could eat you up in one bite if it wanted to." He said, laughing to lighten the mood a bit.

"See there need to be more people like you in the world, willing to give something a chance before writing it off as dangerous and to be killed rather than trying to understand it." Tera said.

Charlie blinked and looked at the girl for a moment before a huge smile broke out across his face and he laughed. "I can see why my family adores you! I like your style." He said, pulling her into a big hug.

"Charlie, let the poor girl got, she's turning purple for heaven's sake." came a laugh from behind them as Bill Weasley made his way down the stairs.

Charlie laughed sheepishly and let Tera go, who instantly gasped and took in a huge breath of air. "Sorry about that, I forget my own strength sometimes."

Bill just shook his head and smiled, holding his arms open for a hug. "It's been a while Tera, last time was your 12th birthday if I remember correctly."

Tera smiled and ran into his arms with a laugh, Bill had always been Tera's favorite out of the twin's siblings. "Yeah, you owe me two birthday presents and hugs!" she teased, smiling up at him from the hug.

"Ouch. You didn't miss me in the least, just my hugs and presents?" he teased back, a twinkle in his eyes.

Tera tried to keep a straight face but it soon dissolved into giggles. "Of course I missed you. I just happened to miss your presents and hugs a bit more." She teased again, a playful smile on her face.

Bill sighed, a chuckle escaping him. "You sure have grown since the last time I saw you. Lemme get a look at ya." Pulling away from the hug Bill gave her a once over and nodded. "Yup, you got taller and you definitely aren't a little girl anymore." He said with a playful smile.

Tera blushed and shuffled her feet, her shyness making Bill and Charlie both chuckle.

The boys both went into the kitchen to wait for their siblings and father to get home and the girls all sat down to talk, Tera listening to Hermione talk about her summer vacation and all the books she got. Not long after sitting down to talk they started to hear more voices coming from the kitchen, including Fred and George's excited ones, and what sounded like Harry replying and then a _pop_ of someone apparating into the kitchen.

"Arthur's home" Mrs. Weasley said, getting up and heading towards the kitchen.

The girls got up and followed after her, smiling when they saw Harry, who grinned back at them, causing Ginny to turn a bright scarlet – she had been quiet taken with him ever since she had first met him.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley repeated, in a dangerous sort of voice, having heard her husband reprimanding the twins just moments before.

"It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Mr. Weasley, "Fred and George just - but I've had words with them -"

"What have they done this time?" said Mrs. Weasley. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes -"

"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" said Hermione from the doorway, trying to help make a getaway.

"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last -"

"We can all go," said Hermione pointedly.

"Oh," said Ron, finally catching on. "Right."

"Yeah, we'll come too," said George, who was starting to inch his way towards the exit.

"You stay where you are!" snarled Mrs. Weasley.

Harry and Ron edged out of the kitchen, Hermione, Tera and Ginny along after them down the narrow hallway and up the rickety staircase that zigzagged through the house to the upper stories.

"What are Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as they climbed.

Ron and Ginny both laughed, although Hermione didn't and Tera just smiled and rolled her eyes, remembering the last thing the twins had shown her that blew up in their faces.

"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," said Ron quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that…"

Tera listened, just nodding and smiling, she already knew her boys were brilliant, at least when they wanted to be anyways.

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," said Ginny. "We thought they just liked the noise."

"Only, most of the stuff - well, all of it, really - was a bit dangerous," said Ron, "and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make any more of it, and burned all the order forms… She's furious at them anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected."

At that Tera rolled her eyes, knowing that Mrs. Weasley set high standards for her children, and how though the twins hated to disappoint her, they also wanted to be able to do their own thing and not follow in their brother's or their father's footsteps.

"And then there was this big row," Ginny said, "because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop."

Just then a door on the second landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed

glasses and a very annoyed expression.

"Hi, Percy," said Harry.

"Oh hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know I've got a report to finish for the office – and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."

"We're not thundering," said Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."

At this Tera giggled lightly, causing Ron to smile and go a bit pink in the ears.

Percy kept talking and Tera tuned the conversation out, instead wondering just how much trouble the twins were getting into with their mother. Tera decided instead of following the others up to Ron's room, to quietly sneak back down the stairs and head outside, she always enjoyed being outside rather than in a cramped room anyways.

Slowly making her way past the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley's yells could still be heard, Tera slipped outside and headed straight for the garden. Sitting down she laughed and watched Crookshanks chase after gnomes, giggling when he'd catch one only to drop it when it would start screaming profanities at him. After a few minutes the yelling in the kitchen finally stopped and just a few short moments later out came the twins, Bill and Charlie.

The twins ran over and tackled Tera, making her fall over and be stuck under the twins. "What is it with everyone and tackling me today?" she asked with a laugh.

Bill and Charlie both chuckled, each of them grabbing one of the twins and pulling them off the poor girl, then offering her and hand and helping her up. "Told ya everyone is this family loves ya." said Charlie with a laugh.

Tera just smiled, pulling Fred and George into a big hug. "Merlin I've missed you two."

"We missed you too love." said Fred, smiling down at the little Hufflepuff.

Looking over at Bill and Charlie she saw them pull out their wands and aim them at the shed, two very old and battered looking tables floating out. "How about we have a bit of fun with these Charlie? It's been a while since I beat you."

"You're on Bill. Prepare to lose!" Charlie said with a grin that was just like the twins when they were at their most devious.

Tera laughed and cheered along with the twins as Bill and Charlie started dueling with their flying tables, making loud crashing noises and trying to knock the other's table out of the air. "Come on Bill! Knock his outta the air!"

"Hey, that's not fair! Bill you always get the pretty girls cheering for you!" Charlie said with a pout.

"What can I say little brother, the ladies love me." He said with a playful wink in Tera's direction.

Tera laughed and blushed lightly, knowing that Bill was just joking around. Eventually Bill smashed his table into Charlie's and knocked one of its legs off. There was a clatter from overhead, and they all looked up to see Percy's head poking out of a window on the second floor.

"Will you keep it down?!" he bellowed.

"Sorry, Perce," said Bill, grinning. "How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"

"Very badly," said Percy peevishly, and he slammed the window shut. Chuckling, Bill and Charlie directed the tables safely onto the grass, end to end, and then, with a flick of his wand, Bill reattached the table leg and conjured tablecloths from nowhere.

By seven o'clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking, and the nine Weasleys, Tera, Harry, and Hermione were settling themselves down to eat beneath a clear, deep-blue sky. Harry of course shoveled large helpings onto his plate and listened instead of talking, this cause Tera to smile, knowing how much Harry enjoyed Mrs. Weasley's cooking.

At the far end of the table, Percy was telling his father all about his report on cauldron bottoms.

"I've told Mr. Crouch that I'll have it ready by Tuesday," Percy was saying pompously. "That's a bit sooner than he expected it, but I like to keep on top of things. I think he'll be grateful I've done it in good time, I mean, it's extremely busy in our department just now -"

Tera tuned Percy out again with a roll of her eyes, instead focusing on the conversation the twins were having with their brother Charlie, though rolling her eyes again when it turned out to be about Quidditch, well at least it would be more interesting to listen to the Percy and his yammering.

"It's got to be Ireland," said Charlie thickly, through a mouthful of potato. "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."

"Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," said Fred.

"Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven," said Charlie shortly. "I wish England had got through. That was embarrassing, that was."

"What happened?" said Harry eagerly, Tera knew how isolated her felt when he was stuck with the muggles on Privet Drive, so it was completely understandable how eager he was to find things out.

"Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten," said Charlie gloomily. "Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."

Fred looked over at Tera, smiling at how happy she looked spending time with his family, and knowing that his family absolutely adored the young Hufflepuff. "So Tera, are we going to be seeing you and your brother at the Quidditch cup?"

"Yup! Mum got us excellent tickets and is taking time off work to be there with us. Callum's so excited he's been jumping up and down all around the house. But since his last growth spurt he's gotten more gangly and keeps falling." She replied with a giggle, remembering when Callum had tripped over their grandmother's fat orange cat Waddlesworth. He still had the scratches from the little episode.

Fred laughed, knowing how growth spurts can be, having been through them himself and now was watching Ron go through them. "Well it's great that you guys will be going."

"Yeah, will be much more fun to have our little Hufflepuff there to pick on." George teased.

Mr. Weasley conjured up candles to light the darkening garden before they had their homemade strawberry ice cream, along with the goodies that Tera had brought in her basket and by the time they had finished, moths were fluttering here and there low over the table, and the warm air was perfumed with the smells of grass and honeysuckle.

Tera smiled contently, her eyes drooping as she let out a small yawn, leaning against Fred so she wouldn't fall out of her seat. It was days like this that made her wish she had a large family, everyone here was so full of life, and there was always another interesting story to hear after someone finishes telling theirs, well except Percy's stories. They were all kinda bland and not all that interesting to listen to.

Closing her eyes Tera listened to the sounds around her, before her ears perked up at the conversation Hermione, Ron and Harry were having about none other than Sirius Black.

"So - have you heard from Sirius lately?" Ron asked in a quiet voice, though not too quiet for Tera and her excellent hearing.

"Yeah," said Harry softly, "twice. He sounds okay. I wrote to him yesterday. He might write back while I'm here." Harry seemed to pause after that, like he was thinking of adding something but decided against it.

"Look at the time," Mrs. Weasley said suddenly, checking her wristwatch. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you; you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to the Cup. Harry, if you leave your school list out, I'll get your things for you tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There might not be time after the World Cup; the match went on for five days last time."

"Wow - hope it does this time!" said Harry enthusiastically.

"Well, I certainly don't," said Percy sanctimoniously. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."

"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred.

"That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face, his cheeks puffing up indignantly. "It was nothing personal!"

"It was," Fred whispered to Harry and Tera as they got up from the table. "We sent it."

Tera smiled, knowing how much Fred and George enjoy picking on their brother Percy, and that Percy really does love his brother's, they just annoy him to no end. "Well I had better be getting home."

"Awww… why not stay the night! You could come with us in the morning and meet up with your mother and brother at the Cup." said George, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

"Nah, I have to help mom get everything together." She replied around a yawn, her arm wrapping around George's waist and hugging him. I'll see you boys tomorrow though, that you can count on." Letting go Tera pulled Fred into a hug too; her nose buried in the front of his shirt.

Fred smiled, wrapping his arms around the small girl, her light perfume tickling his nose pleasantly. "See you tomorrow then love."

Tera pecked them both on the cheek and then headed inside, hugging Bill, Charlie, Ron, Harry, who she handed the gift from her grandmother, Hermione and then getting smushed between Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Grabbing her basket and pulling on her cloak Tera turned to the fireplace, grabbing a pinch of Floo powder and tossing into the fire. Stepping into the fire she turned and waved to all the faces smiling back at her, then yelled "Howell House!"

Looking around Tera was surprised at how many people were already here, a vast ocean of tents and people walking about, loud boisterous chants coming from people who had already drank themselves silly. Callum was bouncing from foot to foot, eager for the Cup to already start, decked out in Irish colors, a clover painted on his cheek.

Persephone lead them to a spot that had and sign that said 'Howell' and set down her bag, looking around to make sure no one was watching she smiled and with a wave of her wand a pristine white canvas tent popped out of the bag and set itself up, settling with a quiver. "Here we are lovies. Home sweet home."

Stepping inside Tera quickly rushed over to the purple bed that was designated as hers, plopping her pack down on it she headed back outside. "I'm going to go exploring mum, is that alright?"

"That's fine dear. You brother wants me to take him to see some friends over in another field. Just stay out of trouble." Persephone said with a glance at her watch to check the time.

"Don't I always?" Tera said with a laugh as she jogged off with a smile and wave. As she walked along she saw school mates, waving and saying the occasional hello, soon though she spotted a head of flaming red hair, bushy brown hair and messy black. Smiling to herself she kept hidden and slowly followed them until they reached their destination.

"You've been ages," said George as Harry, Ron and Hermione approached Weasleys' tents.

"Met a few people," said Ron, setting the water down. "You've not got that fire started yet?"

"Dad's having fun with the matches," said Fred.

Mr. Weasley, who was surrounded by splintered matches, was having a grand time, a wide smile on his face as he continued trying to light the fire. "Oops!" he said as he managed to light a match and promptly dropped it in surprise, smiling sheepishly as he looked up at the people around him.

"Come here, Mr. Weasley," said Hermione kindly, taking the box from him, and showing him how to do it properly.

Tera slowly made her way behind the tents, making sure no one saw her, and then pounced, tackling Fred and George both to the ground with laugh.

"Tera!" everyone yelled with delight, glad to see the young Hufflepuff.

"Hullo." Tera replied with a smile, joining everyone as they all sat down around the fire. The next hour until the fire was ready to possibly cook anything was spent with Tera joking around with the twins, giggling over some of the more off the wall outfits people came up with to act like muggles, and a few games of black jack with candy as ante.

At last, the fire was ready, and they had just started cooking eggs and sausages when Bill, Charlie, and Percy came strolling out of the woods toward them.

"Just Apparated, Dad," said Percy loudly. "Ah, excellent, lunch!"

They were halfway through their plates of eggs and sausages, Tera only had one sausage and was sipping on a steaming cup of cocoa, when Mr. Weasley jumped to his feet, waving and grinning at a man who was striding toward them.

"Aha!" he said. "The man of the moment! Ludo!"

Up strolled a rather large man, who was wearing Quidditch robes, in the colors of black and yellow, whom greatly resembled a swollen bumble bee. His nose was rather squashed, most likely from a Bludger to the face, but the rest of his face, including his bright blonde hair gave him a great resemblance of an overgrown school boy.

"Ahoy there!" Bagman called happily. He had a bounce to his step that had Tera in the mind that there might be springs attached to the bottoms of his feet; his movements made him seem to be in a state of wild excitement. "Arthur, old man," he puffed as he reached the campfire, "what a day, eh? What a day! Could we have asked for more perfect weather? A cloudless night coming… and hardly a hiccough in the arrangements… Not much for me to do!"

Behind him, a group of very frazzled and tired looking Ministry wizards rushed past, pointing towards the distance where there was evidence of some sort of magical fire that was shooting violet colored sparks about twenty feet into the air. Percy rushed forward with his hand outstretched, his disapproval with how Bagman ran his department not preventing him from wanting to lend a hand if it could help him make a good impression.

"Ah - yes," said Mr. Weasley, grinning, "this is my son Percy. He's just started at the Ministry - and this is Fred - no, George, sorry - that's Fred and their friend Tera Howell - Bill, Charlie, Ron - my daughter, Ginny and Ron's friends, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter."

Bagman did the smallest of double takes when he heard Harry's name, and his eyes performed the familiar flick upward to the scar on Harry's forehead.

"Everyone," Mr. Weasley continued, "this is Ludo Bagman, you know who he is, it's thanks to him we've got such good tickets -"

Bagman beamed and waved his hand as if to say it had been nothing.

"Fancy a flutter on the match, Arthur?" he said eagerly, jingling what seemed to be a large amount of gold in the pockets of his yellow-and-black robes. "I've already got Roddy Pontner betting me Bulgaria will score first - I offered him nice odds, considering Ireland's front three are the strongest I've seen in years - and little Agatha Timms has put up half shares in her eel farm on a weeklong match."

"Oh… go on then," said Mr. Weasley. "Let's see… a Galleon on Ireland to win?"

"A Galleon?" Ludo Bagman looked slightly disappointed, but recovered himself. "Very well, very well… any other takers?"

"They're a bit young to be gambling," said Mr. Weasley. "Molly wouldn't like -"

"We'll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts," said Fred as he and George quickly pooled all their money, Tera sneaking in two Galleons without them noticing it wasn't theirs "that Ireland wins - but Viktor Krum gets the Snitch. Oh and we'll throw in a fake wand."

"You don't want to go showing Mr. Bagman rubbish like that," Percy hissed, but Bagman didn't seem to think the wand was rubbish at all; quite the opposite actually, his boyish face lit up with excitement as he took it from Fred's outstretched hand. When the wand gave a loud squawk and turned into a rubber chicken, Bagman roared with laughter.

"Excellent! I haven't seen one that convincing in years! I'd pay five Galleons for that!"

Percy's face turned an interesting shade of splotchy red; his expression froze in stunned disapproval.

"Boys," said Mr. Weasley under his breath, "I don't want you betting… That's all your savings… Your mother -"

"Don't be a spoilsport, Arthur!" boomed Ludo Bagman, rattling his pockets excitedly. "They're old enough to know what they want! You reckon Ireland will win but Krum'll get the Snitch? Not a chance, boys, not a chance… I'll give you excellent odds on that one… We'll add five Galleons for the funny wand, then, shall we…"

Mr. Weasley looked on helplessly as Ludo Bagman whipped out a notebook and quill and began jotting down the twins' names.

"Cheers," said George, taking the slip of parchment Bagman handed him and tucking it away into the front of his robes. Bagman turned most cheerfully back to Mr. Weasley.

"Couldn't do me a brew, I suppose? I'm keeping an eye out for Barty Crouch. My Bulgarian opposite number's making difficulties, and I can't understand a word he's saying. Barty'll be able to sort it out. He speaks about a hundred and fifty languages."

"Mr. Crouch?" said Percy, suddenly abandoning his look of poker-stiff disapproval and positively writhing with excitement. "He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll…"

"Anyone can speak Troll," said Fred dismissively. "All you have to do is point and grunt."

Tera giggled as George did an impression while taking on a very vacant and dim look.

Percy threw Fred an extremely nasty look, aiming it a bit at George too and stoked the fire vigorously to bring the kettle back to the boil, Tera heard him grumbling under his breath, but couldn't quite catch what he was saying.

"Any news of Bertha Jorkins yet, Ludo?" Mr. Weasley asked as Bagman settled himself down on the grass beside them all.

"Not a dicky bird," said Bagman comfortably. "But she'll turn up. Poor old Bertha… memory like a leaky cauldron and no sense of direction. Lost, you take my word for it. She'll wander back into the office sometime in October, thinking it's still July."

"You don't think it might be time to send someone to look for her?" Mr. Weasley suggested tentatively as Percy handed Bagman his tea.

"Barty Crouch keeps saying that," said Bagman, his round eyes widening innocently, "but we really can't spare anyone at the moment. Oh - talk of the devil! Barty!"

Tera looked the man over, he was so stiff looking you'd think he was related to statues, his clothes all in shades of gray that made him very drab and boring looking. His frown looked so natural on his face you have to wonder if the man even knew how to smile.

"Pull up a bit of grass, Barty," said Ludo brightly, patting the ground beside him as he looked up at the man who was his exact opposite in every way.

"No thank you, Ludo," said Crouch, a bite of impatience in his voice. "I've been looking for you everywhere. The Bulgarians are insisting we add another twelve seats to the Top Box."

"Oh is that what they're after?" said Bagman. "I thought the chap was asking to borrow a pair of tweezers. Bit of a strong accent."

"Mr. Crouch!" said Percy breathlessly, sinking into a kind of half bow that made him look like a hunchback or a servant whom desperately wanted to please their master. "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Oh," said Mr. Crouch, looking over at Percy in mild surprise, almost as if he had to take a moment to remember who he was. "Yes - thank you, Weatherby."

Fred and George choked into their own cups, Tera nearly spilling cocoa down her front. Percy, very pink around the ears, busied himself with the kettle.

"Oh and I've been wanting a word with you too, Arthur," said Mr. Crouch, his sharp eyes falling upon Mr. Weasley. "Ali Bashir's on the warpath. He wants a word with you about your embargo on flying carpets."

Mr. Weasley heaved a deep sigh. "I sent him an owl about that just last week. If I've told him once I've told him a hundred times: Carpets are defined as a Muggle Artifact by the Registry of Proscribed Charmable Objects, but will he listen?"

"I doubt it," said Mr. Crouch, accepting a cup from Percy with barely a nod of thanks, let alone acknowledgement. "He's desperate to export here."

"Well, they'll never replace brooms in Britain, will they?" said Bagman.

"Ali thinks there's a niche in the market for a family vehicle," said Mr. Crouch. "I remember my grandfather had an Axminster that could seat twelve - but that was before carpets were banned, of course." he stated.

"So, been keeping busy, Barty?" said Bagman breezily.

"Fairly," said Mr. Crouch dryly. "Organizing Portkeys across five continents is no mean feat, Ludo."

"I expect you'll both be glad when this is over?" said Mr. Weasley.

Ludo Bagman looked shocked. "Glad! Don't know when I've had more fun… Still, it's not as though we haven't got anything to look forward to, eh, Barty? Eh? Plenty left to organize, eh?"

Mr. Crouch raised his eyebrows at Bagman as if he was daft. "We agreed not to make the announcement until all the details -"

"Oh details!" said Bagman, waving the word away as one would an annoying nat. "They've signed, haven't they? They've agreed, haven't they? I bet you anything these kids'll know soon enough anyway. I mean, it's happening at Hogwarts -"

"Ludo, we need to meet the Bulgarians, you know," said Mr. Crouch sharply, cutting Bagman's remarks short. "Thank you for the tea, Weatherby." He pushed his undrunk tea back at Percy and waited for Ludo to rise; Bagman struggled to his feet, swigging down the last of his tea, the gold in his pockets chinking merrily.

"See you all later!" Bagman said. "You'll be up in the Top Box with me - I'm commentating!" He waved, Barty Crouch nodded curtly, and both of them Disapparated.

"What's happening at Hogwarts, Dad?" asked Fred at once. "What were they talking about?"

"You'll find out soon enough," said Mr. Weasley, smiling.

"It's classified information, until such time as the Ministry decides to release it," said Percy stiffly. "Mr. Crouch was quite right not to disclose it."

"Oh shut up, Weatherby," said Fred.

Tera not long after took her leave, though stopped and bought a few things from the salesmen, including a few things she knew the boys would like. When she reached her families tent she saw her brother standing outside of it with a few other boys his age. All of them wearing Irish colors and laughing as Callum attempted to do a jig. Tera just shook her head and walked past them, opening the flap and walking inside she sat down with her mother in one of the comfortable chairs, grabbing a cookie from a tin on the table.

Not even a moment after Tera took a bite of her cookie a deep, booming gong sounded somewhere beyond the woods, and at once, green and red lanterns blazed into life in the trees, lighting a path to the field.

"Time for us to be going sweetie." Her mother said, setting down the book she was reading and getting up, leading her daughter outside and along with Callum, following the lanterns into the woods. They could hear the sounds of thousands of people moving around them, shouts and laughter, snatches of singing. The atmosphere of feverish excitement was highly infectious; Callum couldn't stop grinning and bouncing along.

They walked through the wood for twenty minutes, talking and joking loudly, until at last they emerged on the other side and found themselves in the shadow of a gigantic stadium. Persephone handed their tickets to one of the ministry workers there.

"Prime seats!" said the Ministry witch at the entrance when she checked their tickets. "Top Box, straight upstairs Miss Howell, and up as high as you can go."

"Thank you." Persephone said with a pleasant smile, leading her children with her up the long stairs until they reached the top, taking their seats near a house elf that looked to holding a spot for its master, hiding its eyes and quivering a bit.

Tera looked around her, wondering who all they would be sharing the box with. After another ten minutes in came Mr. Weasley followed closely by the twins, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron, Harry and Hermione. Tera smiled and waved as they took their seats, Callum bouncing in his own as he watched the field, impatient for the match to start.

Tera pulled a book out of her bag that she had brought with her and started reading, not the biggest Quidditch fan in the box she was getting shot dirty looks by her brother, though she just rolled her eyes and ignored him.

The box filled gradually around them over the next half hour. Mr. Weasley kept shaking hands with people who were obviously very important wizards. Percy jumped to his feet so often that he looked as though he were trying to sit on a hedgehog. When Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic himself, arrived, Percy bowed so low that his glasses fell off and shattered. Highly

embarrassed, he repaired them with his wand and thereafter remained in his seat, throwing jealous looks at Harry, whom Cornelius Fudge had greeted like an old friend, Fudge shook Harry's hand in a fatherly fashion, asked how he was, and introduced him to the wizards on either side of him.

"Harry Potter, you know," he told the Bulgarian minister loudly, who was wearing splendid robes of black velvet trimmed with gold and didn't seem to understand a word of English. "Harry Potter… oh come on now, you know who he is… the boy who survived You-Know-Who… you do know who he is -"

The Bulgarian wizard suddenly spotted Harry's scar and started gabbling loudly and excitedly, pointing at it.

"Knew we'd get there in the end," said Fudge wearily to Harry. "I'm no great shakes at languages; I need Barty Crouch for this sort of thing. Ah, I see his house-elf's saving him a seat… Good job too, these Bulgarian blighters have been trying to cadge all the best places… ah, and here's Lucius!"

Tera looked up at the new comer and frowned, looks like the Malfoy's are going to be here too. Looking back down at her book Tera tried her hardest to ignore the youngest Malfoy, not wanting to have an argument with him today.

"Ah, Fudge," said Mr. Malfoy, holding out his hand as he reached the Minister of Magic. "How are you? I don't think you've met my wife, Narcissa? Or our son, Draco?"

"How do you do, how do you do?" said Fudge, smiling and bowing to Mrs. Malfoy. "And allow me to introduce you to Mr. Oblansk - Obalonsk - Mr. - well, he's the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, and he can't understand a word I'm saying anyway, so never mind. And let's see who else - you know Arthur Weasley, I daresay?"

Sparks seemed to fly between the two, as Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley looked at each other, neither blinking. Mr. Malfoy's cold gray eyes swept over Mr. Weasley, and then up and down the row.

"Good lord, Arthur," he said softly. "What did you have to sell to get seats in the Top Box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched this much?"

Fudge, who wasn't listening, said, "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur. He's here as my guest."

"How - how nice," said Mr. Weasley, with a very strained smile.

Fudge looked over at Persephone with a smile. "I believe a large chunk of Mr. Malfoy's contribution went to your departments, am I correct Miss. Howell."

Persephone smiled politely, nodding her head. "Yes, and it has been put to very good use in the children's ward as well as helped with our overseas medical travels. We're able to take on more high profile cases in other parts of Europe that we hadn't been able to help before."

"Good, good." said Fudge with a smile, turning back to the Malfoy's.

Mr. Malfoy's eyes had returned to Hermione, who went slightly pink, but stared determinedly back at him. Harry and Tera both knew exactly what was making Mr. Malfoy's lip curl like that. The Malfoys prided themselves on being purebloods; in other words, they considered anyone of Muggle descent, like Hermione, second-class, unlike the Weasley's and Howell's who though pure-bloods were friendly towards those who weren't.

However, under the gaze of the Minister of Magic, Mr. Malfoy didn't dare say anything. He nodded sneeringly to Mr. Weasley and continued down the line to his seats, right next to Tera, who shifted uncomfortably and tried harder to focus on her book. Draco shot Harry, Ron, and Hermione one contemptuous look, then settled himself between his mother and father, sneaking a sneering glance at the Howell's.

"Slimy gits," Ron muttered as he, Harry, and Hermione turned to face the field again. Next moment, Ludo Bagman charged into the box.

"Everyone ready?" he said, his round face gleaming like a child whom had just been told Christmas was coming early. "Minister - ready to go?"

"Ready when you are, Ludo," said Fudge comfortably.

Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it at his own throat, and said "Sonorus!" and then spoke over the roar of sound that was now filling the packed stadium; his voice echoed over them, booming into every corner of the stands.

"Ladies and gentlemen… welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"

The spectators screamed and clapped. Thousands of flags waved, adding their discordant national anthems to the racket. The huge blackboard opposite them was wiped clear of its last message (Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans - A Risk With Every Mouthful!) and now showed BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.

"And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce… the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

The right-hand side of the stands, which was a solid block of scarlet, roared its approval.

"I wonder what they've brought," said Mr. Weasley, leaning forward in his seat. "Aaah!" He suddenly whipped off his glasses and polished them hurriedly on his robes. "Veela!"

"What are veel -?" started Harry before gulping and staring down at the field.

But a hundred veela were now gliding out onto the field, and Harry's question was answered for him. Veela were women… highly beautiful women, when the music started though, Tera got thoroughly annoyed.

Callum, who had been staring at the veela with wide eyes was getting out of his seat, and trying to climb over the back of the front row seats, mumbling about impressing the beautiful women. Tera quickly smacked him upside the head; Callum, coming back to his senses quickly covered his ears, a sheepish smile on his face.

Looking at the twins Tera sighed, looks like they had been affected too. Getting up she grabbed them both by the ears and tugged, a displease frown on her face. "Plug your ears next time they start dancing before you make fools of yourselves." She grumbled, sitting back down as they both plugged their ears, which had turned a bright shade of crimson in their embarrassment.

Angry yells were filling the stadium. The crowd didn't want the veela to go. Harry was right there with them, looking down at the shamrock on his chest in slight confusion. Ron, meanwhile, was absentmindedly shredding the shamrocks on his hat. Mr. Weasley, smiling slightly, leaned over to Ron and tugged the hat out of his hands.

"You'll be wanting that," he said, "once Ireland have had their say."

"Huh?" said Ron, staring slack mouthed at the veela, who had now lined up along one side of the field, his eyes a bit glazed over.

Hermione made a loud tutting noise and shook her head, exasperated. She reached up and pulled Harry back into his seat. "Honestly!" she said.

"And now," roared Ludo Bagman's voice, "kindly put your wands in the air… for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

Next moment, what seemed to be a great green-and-gold comet came zooming into the stadium. It did one circuit of the stadium, and then split into two smaller comets, each hurtling toward the goal posts. A rainbow arced suddenly across the field, connecting the two balls of light.

The crowd oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display. Now the rainbow faded and the balls of light reunited and merged; they had formed a great shimmering shamrock, which rose up into the sky and began to soar over the stands. Something like golden rain seemed to be falling from it –

"Excellent!" yelled Ron as the shamrock soared over them, and heavy gold coins rained from it, bouncing off their heads and seats. Squinting up at the shamrock, Harry realized that it was actually comprised of thousands of tiny little bearded men with red vests, each carrying a minute lamp of gold or green.

"Leprechauns!" said Mr. Weasley over the tumultuous applause of the crowd, many of whom were still fighting and rummaging around under their chairs to retrieve the gold.

Tera picked up a coin, using it as a bookmark to hold her place, while her brother was diving under the seats in a mad dash for coins. Tera shook her head at her brother and went back to reading her book, only listening to what was going on around her.

The great shamrock dissolved, the leprechauns drifted down onto the field on the opposite side from the veela, and settled themselves cross-legged to watch the match.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome - the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you - Dimitrov!"

A scarlet-clad figure on a broomstick, moving so fast it was blurred, shot out onto the field from an entrance far below, to wild applause from the Bulgarian supporters.

"Ivanova!"

A second scarlet-robed player zoomed out.

"Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaand - Krum!"

Callum booed along with all the other Irish supporters, though he did focus on Krum who was said to be one of the best players in the game.

"And now, please greet - the Irish National Quidditch Team!" yelled Bagman. "Presenting - Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley! Aaaaaand - Lynch!"

At this Callum cheered loudly, waving his Irish banner proudly and jumping around excitedly.

"And here, all the way from Egypt, our referee, acclaimed Chairwizard of the International Association of Quidditch, Hassan Mostafa!"

Tera happened a glance up and chuckled, the man had one of the largest mustaches she had ever seen. It by far rivaled the one Harry's uncle Vernon had, at least from what she had heard about the man from Harry and the twins. Chuckling Tera looked back down at her book, intent on finishing it before the end of the day.

"Theeeeeeeey're OFF!" screamed Bagman.

After that everything sort of became a blur to Tera, other than her brother jumping up and down in his seat and yelling at the top of his lungs, Tera mostly ignored everything, only looking up when people would gasp in surprise, or when she felt a pair of eyes watching her intently. Looking up it was none other than Malfoy, his usual sneer on his face.

Ignoring him as best she could, Tera decided to put her book away and focus on the game, gasping when the Irish Seeker smashed into the ground because Krum had lead him to believe he had seen the snitch. "Ouch… that looked painful."

Callum, who had on a pair of Omnioculars told her that the move Krum had used was called the Wronski Defensive Feint, a very dangerous Seeker diversion. His annoyance that the Irish Seeker had fallen for it was clear on his face.

Tera sighed and put her book down in her lap, deciding to watch a bit of the match, after another few minutes the Bulgarians fouled and a penalty was awarded to the Irish.

The leprechauns had risen into the air again, and this time, they formed a giant hand, which was making a very rude sign indeed at the veela across the field. At this, the veela lost control. Instead of dancing, they launched themselves across the field and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. Watching them Tera sighed, looks like the veela were angry enough to show their true faces, not the beautiful ones they normally wore. Their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders -

"And that, boys," yelled Mr. Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below, "is why you should never go for looks alone!"

Tera chuckled when she saw the twins nod their heads quickly in agreement, their eyes bugging out of their heads as they watched the fight between the veela and leprechaun.

Ministry wizards were flooding onto the field to separate the veela and the leprechauns, but with little success; meanwhile, the pitched battle below was nothing to the one taking place above.

"Levski - Dimitrov - Moran - Troy - Mullet - Ivanova - Moran again - Moran - MORAN SCORES!"

But the cheers of the Irish supporters were barely heard over the shrieks of the veela, the blasts now issuing from the Ministry members' wands, and the furious roars of the Bulgarians. Then Krum ended up taking a Bludger to the face.

"That looks like it hurt…" Tera mumbled, staring with hide eye at Krum, whose nose clearly was broken, blood everywhere. "He seriously needs to get checked out." She said, hoping that the referee would blow his whistle soon.

There was a deafening groan from the crowd, but Hassan Mostafa didn't blow his whistle. He had become distracted, and Tera honestly couldn't blame him; one of the veela had thrown a handful of fire and set his broom tail alight.

Tera was getting seriously annoyed, watching Krum trying to wipe the blood away and clear his vision. Ron obviously felt the same.

"Time-out! Ah, come on, he can't play like that, look at him -"

"Look at Lynch!" Harry yelled.

For the Irish Seeker had suddenly gone into a dive, this was the real thing, not some sort of diversion.

"He's seen the Snitch!" Harry shouted. "He's seen it! Look at him go!"

Half the crowd seemed to have realized what was happening; the Irish supporters rose in another great wave of green, screaming their Seeker on… but Krum was on his tail. How he could see, let alone be coherent enough to know where he was going, Tera didn't have a clue; there were flecks of blood trailing behind his as he plummeted to the ground, but he was quickly drawing level with Lynch now as the pair of them hurtled after the Snitch.

"They're going to crash!" shrieked Hermione.

"They're not!" roared Ron.

"Lynch is!" yelled Harry.

And he was right - for the second time, Lynch hit the ground with tremendous force and was immediately stampeded by a horde of angry veela.

"The Snitch, where's the Snitch?" bellowed Charlie, standing and leaning over the rail to the point he might fall, trying to see the Snitch.

"He's got it - Krum's got it - it's all over!" shouted Harry.

Krum, his red robes shining with blood from his nose, was rising up slowly into the air, his fist held high, a glint of gold in his hand.

The scoreboard was flashing BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170 across the crowd, who didn't seem to have realized what had happened. Then, slowly, as though a great jumbo jet were revving up, the rumbling from the Ireland supporters grew louder and louder and erupted into screams of delight. Callum joining them, screaming his head off and jumping for joy.

"IRELAND WINS!" Bagman shouted, who like the Irish, seemed to be taken aback by the sudden end of the match. "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH - BUT IRELAND WINS — good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

"The twins were." Tera mumbled under her breath with a smile, knowing how excited the twins were and how much winning that bet would help them with their dreams.

"What did he catch the Snitch for?" Ron bellowed, even as he jumped up and down, applauding with his hands over his head. "He ended it when Ireland were a hundred and sixty points ahead, the idiot!"

"He knew they were never going to catch up!" Harry shouted back over all the noise, also applauding loudly. "The Irish Chasers were too good… He wanted to end it on his terms, that's all…"

"He was very brave, wasn't he?" Hermione said, leaning forward to watch Krum land as a swarm of mediwizards blasted a path through the battling leprechauns and veela to get to him. "He looks a terrible mess…"

Tera couldn't agree more, Krum looked as though he had been trampled by the veela instead of Lynch, twin black eyes darkening his face even more, his nose at an odd angle, the blood still flowing freely from it.

"Vell, ve fought bravely," said a gloomy voice from down Tera's row, looking around she realized it was the Bulgarian Minister of Magic.

"You can speak English!" said Fudge, sounding outraged. "And you've been letting me mime everything all day!"

"Vell, it vos very funny," said the Bulgarian minister, shrugging.

Tera hid a smile behind her hand; it was rather amusing if you think about it.

"And as the Irish team performs a lap of honor, flanked by their mascots, the Quidditch World Cup itself is brought into the Top Box!" roared Bagman.

Tera's eyes were suddenly dazzled by a blinding white light, as the Top Box was magically illuminated so that everyone in the stands could see the inside. Squinting toward the entrance, she saw two panting wizards carrying a vast golden cup into the box, which they handed to Cornelius Fudge, who was still looking very disgruntled that he'd been using sign language all day for nothing.

"Let's have a really loud hand for the gallant losers - Bulgaria!" Bagman shouted.

And up the stairs into the box came the seven defeated Bulgarian players. The crowd below was applauding appreciatively; thousands and thousands of Omniocular lenses flashing and winking to see into the Top Box.

One by one, the Bulgarians filed between the rows of seats in the box, and Bagman called out the name of each as they shook hands with their own minister and then with Fudge. Krum, who was last in line, looked a real mess; two black eyes were blooming spectacularly on his bloody face. He was still holding the Snitch and though he was amazing on a broom, he seemed much less coordinated on the ground. He was slightly duck-footed and distinctly round-shouldered, but when Krum's name was announced, the whole stadium gave him a resounding, earsplitting roar.

And then in came the Irish team, Aidan Lynch was being supported by Moran and Connolly; the second crash seemed to have dazed him and his eyes looked strangely unfocused. But he grinned happily as Troy and Quigley lifted the Cup into the air and the crowd below thundered its approval. Callum himself was smiling goofily; his hands numb with clapping.

At last, when the Irish team had left the box to perform another lap of honor on their brooms (Aidan Lynch on the back of Connolly's, clutching hard around his waist and still grinning in a bemused sort of way), Bagman pointed his wand at his throat and muttered, "Quietus."

"They'll be talking about this one for years," he said hoarsely, "a really unexpected twist, that… shame it couldn't have lasted longer… Ah yes… yes, I owe you… how much?"

Fred and George had just scrambled over the backs of their seats and were standing in front of Ludo Bagman with broad grins on their faces, their hands outstretched. Tera watched with a smile as the boys collected their winnings, their eyes twinkling as they thought about all the different things they could do with the money.

"Just you wait love, we're going to get you an amazing Christmas present this year." Fred said with a smile, shaking their money bag and smiling at the weight of it.

Tera hug her boys, congratulating both of them before turning to follow her mother down the stairs, waving farewell to the Weasley's, Harry and Hermione.

They were soon caught up in the crowds now flooding out of the stadium and back to their campsites. Boisterous singing was carried toward them on the night air as they retraced their steps along the lantern-lit path, leprechauns kept shooting over their heads, cackling and waving their lanterns.

When they finally made it back to their tent, Tera plopped down on her bed, laughing as Callum bounced around, doing a jig in celebration. Persephone made them each a cup of hot chocolate with whip cream on top, a tin of cookies placed between them. When Callum fell asleep upright in his seat, a cookie hanging from his mouth, Persephone finally told her children to turn in for the night.

Callum sleepily clambered behind his privacy curtain, falling into bed without changing. Tera kissed her mother goodnight, changing into her favorite pajamas, a pair of purple jammie bottoms with stars and moons all over them, and the baggy t-shirt she had borrowed from Fred during her second year and never gave back. Crawling into bed Tera lit an oil lamp, pulling out a book to read until she was ready to sleep. From the other side of the campsite there could still be heard much singing and an odd echoing bang.

Tera had no idea when she had fallen asleep, but what seemed like just moments later she was awaken by her mother's desperate yelling.

"Tera, Callum wake up! Hurry it's urgent! We have to get out of here!"

Tera sat up with a start, rubbing her eyes as she looked over at her mother. "S' matter?" she asked sleepily, Callum stumbling from his bed and sitting down on hers. Dimly, Tera could tell that something was wrong. The noises in the campsite had changed. The singing had stopped. She could hear screams, and the sound of people running. "Mum, what's happening?" she asked, becoming more awake and reaching for her clothes.

"There's no time to explain, just grab a jacket. Hurry!" said Persephone, glancing out the flap of their tent, her voice quivering slightly with worry.

Tera nodded, grabbing her jacket she shook her brother, trying to make him fully wake up. "C'mon Callum, we need to get out of here. Here's your jacket, let's go!" Pulling Callum along behind her Tera ran out of the tent, followed closely by her mother. By the light of the few fires that were still burning, she could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire.

Loud jeering, roars of laughter, and drunken yells were drifting toward them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene. Persephone quickly pushed her children, making them move quickly away from the group and towards the woods. Once or twice Tera saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.

Catching site of what was floating above the marchers Tera froze, her eyes widening in horror. Two of the four figures above the group were children, younger then both her and Callum. "Mum, they've got children!" she yelled over the screams, looking back at her mother, who had also noticed and was shaking with anger.

"Tera, listen to me, and listen good. I want you to get your brother out of here. Go find the Weasley's, stick together and do not let Callum out of your sight. Do you understand me?" Persephone asked, looking at her daughter, her eyes darting back to the marching group.

"Yes I understand. Mum, you had better stay safe." Tera said, knowing her mother was going to try to save the children.

Persephone nodded at her daughter and turned, running into the madness.

Tera turned to her brother, her eyes hardening. "We need to get out of here. Follow me." She said before turning and running towards the woods, her bare feet barely registering the rocks and twigs beneath them. After five minutes of running Tera took a moment and stopped, Callum coming up beside her.

Looking back they saw lots of ministry officials running here and there, trying to sort out this mess, amongst those that were heading towards the marchers were four sets of flaming red hair and right next to them was a strawberry blond.

"Mum… you had best not get hurt.." Tera mumbled under her breath before turning and running for the woods. Trying not to get run over by the people that were frantically making their way into the woods, Tera lost sight of Callum, her eyes widening as she frantically tried to find him. "Callum! Where are you?" she screamed, pushing past people and yelling her brother's name.

Throngs of people pushed past Tera, their terror making them not care as she fell to the ground, tears of frustration welling up in her eyes. That is how the twins and Ginny found her, struggling to get up as people rushed past her.

"Love, what happened? Where is your family?" Fred asked as he helped Tera to her feet, noting her tears.

Tera sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Mum stayed behind to try to help, she told me and Callum to find you guys. But we got separated as soon as we made it to the woods, I have to find him! Mum told me to keep him safe!" she cried, looking around them frantically.

"We'll help Ter, he can't have got far!" said George, knowing how much he'd freak if they lost Ginny.

Fred nodded, looking down at the grief stricken young girl. "Tera, we will find your brother. Come on, let's start looking."

Tera nodded and along with Fred, George and Ginny, started looking for Callum. It took them another twenty minutes before they made any progress.

One of Callum's friends from school told them he had seen Callum just moments ago; he had been running around, looking for Tera. Thanking the boy Tera followed his directions at a run, her feet carrying her with a speed that had the twins and Ginny straining to keep up.

After five minutes of running, Tera spotted her brother, with a cry of his name Tera tackled him, her tears of relief streaming down her face in torrent. "Don't EVER do that to me again!" she yelled at him, hugging her brother so hard he was turning blue. Letting him go Tera scrubbed at her tears, her voice cracking slightly. "I thought I lost you… never could have lived with myself… no idea how worried…"

Callum hugged his sister tightly, sniffling as he whispered apologies to her. Looking up to see the twins and Ginny there Callum quickly let go of his sister and wiped his face, not wanting anyone to see his tears.

Tera sniffled and wiped her face, slowly getting to her feet with a bit of help from Fred. "It should be safe to head back. Do you think we can stay with you guys until mum comes to get us?" Tera asked the twins as they all headed back to the campgrounds.

"Yeah, it'll be safer that way anyways, you know safety in numbers and all." said George as they cleared out of the forest and peered out on the campsite. Seeing that it was clear they quickly made their way back to the Weasley tents, Tera holding onto her brother so they wouldn't get separated again. Ducking down they all crawled into the tent, coming face to face with Bill, Charlie and Percy.

"You guys are safe! Where are the others? Did you see the Dark Mark" asked Charlie, hugging both of his younger brothers and then his sister, even pulling Tera into a hug.

"We got separated from them as soon as we entered the forest. We ran into Tera though and helped her find her brother; they also get separated in the madness. Their mum had them run while she went to help the ministry." said George as he sat down in one of the chairs, finally showing how shaken this ordeal had him.

Charlie looked over at Callum, giving him a once over before smiling kindly at the nervous and worried looking boy. "It's nice to meet you Callum. Wish we could have met under better conditions." Charlie said with a chuckle.

Callum smiled sheepishly, for once in his life too shy to say anything. Tera placed her hand on her brother's arm, nodding to an open chair, giving him the signal to sit. Callum nodded and sat down with a sigh.

Looking up Tera gasped when she saw Bill and Percy. Bill was holding a sheet to his arm, blood slowly soaking through it and Percy seemed to have a broken nose. "What happened to you two?" she asked, rushing over to Bill and checking his arm, hissing at the angry looking cut.

"It's nothing, just had a bit of an altercation with the blokes causing all the madness." said Bill with a wince as Tera started cleaning his cut.

"You really do need to be more careful, don't want this getting infected." Tera chastised while pulling her wand out, mumbling the incantation to heal it as Charlie greeted Mr. Weasley who had just returned to the tent with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"How do you know healing magic?" Bill asked in surprise, looking down at the young girl with a new found respect.

"Mum's a mediwitch, she taught me how, she wants me to be prepared for whatever life may throw at me." She mumbled while she worked, the skin slowly stitching itself back together, leaving behind only a pink line to show when the cut had been.

"That's pretty amazing for someone your age." Bill said while Tera turned her focus to Percy, who was looking at her like she was crazy and fussing about her not having the proper training.

"Percy, shut up and let me heal you, I assure you I was taught by a fully trained medical witch and if you keep refusing I'm going to punch you. Now shut up." Tera growled, finally getting Percy to stop arguing as she murmured Episkey after popping his nose back to its original shape.

Percy touched his nose gingerly after Tera finished healing it and smiled lightly, surprised at how well she had done. Before he could even thank her though, Tera had walked off, going over and sitting down next to her brother.

"Did you get them, Dad?" said Bill sharply. "The person who conjured the Mark?"

"No," said Mr. Weasley. "We found Barry Crouch's elf holding Harry's wand, but we're none the wiser about who actually conjured the Mark."

"What?" said Bill, Charlie, and Percy together.

"Harry's wand?" said Fred.

"Mr. Crouch's elf?" said Percy, sounding thunderstruck.

With some assistance from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Mr. Weasley explained what had happened in the woods. When they had finished their story, Percy swelled indignantly.

"Well, Mr. Crouch is quite right to get rid of an elf like that!" he said. "Running away when he'd expressly told her not to… embarrassing him in front of the whole Ministry… how would that have looked, if she'd been brought up in front of the Department for the Regulation and Control."

"She didn't do anything - she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time!" Hermione snapped at Percy, who looked very taken aback. Hermione had always got on fairly well with Percy - better, indeed, than any of the others.

Tera tuned out the arguing, instead focusing on listening to what was going on outside, hoping that her mother was okay. Just as Mr. Weasley was telling the others to start getting ready for bed, Persephone showed up, her hair a bit tousled and a cut on her cheek.

"Mum!" yelled Tera, running into her mother's arms, Callum right behind her. "We were so worried! What kept you so long?"

"Sorry lovies, I had to help with the injured and I stay behind to help clean up as well. I didn't mean to worry you." Persephone said, holding her children close. Looking over at Mr. Weasley she smiled. "Thank you for keeping an eye on my children Arthur."

"Oh don't thank me, thank Fred and George. They're the ones who your young ones ended up with." Mr. Weasley said with a smile at his sons.

Persephone smiled, walking up to Fred and George, pulling them into a hug. "Thank you."

Both Fred and George blushed, awkwardly hugging Tera's mother back.

The Howell's said their goodbyes, Tera hugging her boys along with the other's, minus Percy, and left back to their tent. Each one of them fell into bed, exhausted from all that had happened that day they quickly fell into the welcoming arms of slumber.

A few hours later Persephone woke her children up, wanting to get home as soon as possible she rushed her children along. Packing up their ten with magic she quickly led her children over to where the Portkeys lay, having a rushed conversation with the man in charge of them Persephone secured them a Portkeys that would get them close enough to home that they would only need to hail a taxi.

When they finally made it back to the house they were nearly ran over by a very frazzled very concerned Rosella, her usually neat hair in disarray and eyes wide. "I was so worried! When I read the paper this morning, why I nearly went to find you myself!" she yelled, hugging her daughter and grandchildren to her, thankful they were safe.

The rest of the day saw Tera baking three dozen cookies, two batches of brownies and a pie, her nerves still bit frazzled from yesterday, Callum was in his room writing to his friends who hadn't been able to go to the cup and Persephone had been called into work, apparently some kid had gotten mad at their sibling and did something that resulted in them growing a second head out of their belly button of all places. Rosella, who had been keeping a close eye on them most of the day, finally calmed herself down and had gone back to her usual knitting, though stealing occasional glances at both her grandchildren as if to assure herself that they were safe.

Over the next week Tera visited the Weasley's almost daily, bringing goodies and sometimes even staying to help Mrs. Weasley make dinner, getting to know Charlie more and spending time with the twins. She saw how frazzled Mr. Weasley was with work and noticed that the twins were acting odd as well, keeping to themselves and though they still spent time with Tera, they seemed to be keeping something from her.

While the majority of the family had been at the Cup Rosella had gone to Diagon Ally and picked up the things that the children would need for school, including something that she told Tera not to open until the time was right, whatever that meant. As Tera went to bed for the last night at home she smiled, tomorrow she would be heading to her home away from how. Curling up, her cat Pixie nuzzled against her stomach, Tera fell into a deep and blissful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Alright so this is the second chapter of year four, hopefully I didn't kill it by the rush I put on it. I really wanted to have it ready for you guys by New Years Eve, and I have delivered on that promise. Much love to ElephantShoes who is my most loyal reviewer and how helped me when I got a bit stuck towards the end. Love to ruler of dragons too, you made me smile with the love your showed for Tera in your PM and I thank you for that helped me speed up my writing a bit. I love you all and hope this chapter lives up to expectations. :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; if I did there would have been a lot less deaths, and more happy endings. I do however own this story and my Characters Tera, her family and her pets. There are some excerpts from the book in this chapter, but I tried to make them from Tera's point of view and may have changed very tiny details in the story itself. No hating, just read and enjoy the Tera moments in their random abundance. I hope you all enjoy, and leave me a review. Much love to you, now enjoy the story.**

**Chapter Two**

**Tournaments and Tricksters**

Tera and her family moved quickly, they were running late and only had five minutes to get to the train and say their goodbyes. Persephone looked around them and nodded, following her children at a run as they went through the barrier. Running up to the train next to Mrs. Weasley who was standing on the platform with her two oldest children, Persephone quickly helped Callum load up his and his sister's trunks while Tera hugged each of the Weasley's on the platform, her mother, and then hurried onto the train herself.

Piling into the compartment with the twins, Tera had enough time to stick her head out the window and wave to her mother, catching snips of the conversation between Mrs. Weasley, Harry and the others.

"Yeah, thanks for everything, Mrs. Weasley," said Harry.

"Oh it was my pleasure, dears," said Mrs. Weasley. "I'd invite you for Christmas, but… well, I expect you're all going to want to stay at Hogwarts, what with… one thing and another."

Persephone smiled, coming up to Mrs. Weasley and nodding her agreement. "Yes, I'm sure you'll all want to stay and see what sort of exciting things are going to be happening this year."

Were all the adults around her going to be so elusive? What were they all hiding?

"Mum!" said Ron irritably. "What d'you four know that we don't?"

"You'll find out this evening, I expect," said Mrs. Weasley, smiling. "It's going to be very exciting - mind you, I'm very glad they've changed the rules -"

"What rules?" said Harry, Ron, Fred, George and Tera together.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will tell you… Now, behave, won't you? Won't you, Fred? And you, George?"

The pistons hissed loudly and the train began to move.

"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred bellowed out of the window as Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Persephone sped away from them. "What rules are they changing?"

But Mrs. Weasley only smiled and waved. Before the train had rounded the corner, she, Bill, Charlie and Persephone had Disapparated.

"I really wish the adults would quit hiding things from us." grumbled Tera as she sat down, pulling out a book to read during the train ride. Curling up with her feet tucked under her, Tera rolled her eyes as the boys settled next to her and started reading over her shoulder.

The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved farther north. The sky was so dark and the windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and Tera bought a large stack of Cauldron Cakes and Chocolate Frogs for them to share.

On her way to change into her robes Tera stopped and checked on her brother, smiling lightly when she saw him sitting next to a blushing Calliope Abernathy. "They sure are cute together…" she mumbled to herself, chuckling at Calliope's frowning/over-protective older brother Alfred, before heading into the restroom, changing into her robes and then running into an annoyingly familiar face.

"Well if it isn't Howell. Finally away from your freckle faced twin freaks are you?" Draco Malfoy said with a sneer. "And here I thought you were attached at the hip to them. Or is it that they are attached to your apron strings?"

"Malfoy, why don't you just shut your face and go back to conversion with lower levels of intelligence." She growled, her eyes flashing to Crabbe and Goyle before she pushed past them, making her way down the corridor. Opening the door to her compartment Tera went over to her bag and tossed her clothes into it, pulling out a tin of thumbprint cookies and nibbling on one viciously.

"What's got you in a huff Ter?" asked George, stealing a cookie and plopping down next to her, his brother sitting down on the other side and sneaking away a cookie as well.

"Oh I just had a typical run in with Malfoy. I swear if he was any more annoying I'd call pest control on him." She grumbled, viciously taking another bite out of her cookie.

Both twins chuckled; her little annoyed outbursts could be quite amusing, as long as they weren't aimed at them.

After that things went pretty smooth, Tera took a small nap, and the twins woke her up as they pulled into the pitch-black Hogsmeade station.

As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. Tera bundled Pixie and Thor up under a few of her spare robes for protect them from the rain. As Tera and the boys disembarked from the train, they bent their heads and narrowed their eyes against the downpour of icy rain. The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over their heads.

Looking towards the shivering first years, Tera tutted lightly. "I'd hate to cross the lake in this weather. The poor dears will look like drowned kittens by the time they make it to the castle."

shivering Tera and the twins inched slowly along the dark platform with the rest of the crowd.

A hundred horseless carriages stood waiting for them outside the station. Tera, Fred, George and Callum all climbed quickly into one of them, the later having been pulled along by his sister to keep him from following the first years, before shutting the door with a snap. A few moments later the long procession of carriages was rumbling and splashing its way up the long track towards the castle.

Through the gates, flanked with statues of winged boars, and up the sweeping drive the carriages trundled, swaying dangerously in what was fast becoming a gale. Leaning against the window, Tera could see Hogwarts coming nearer, its many lighted windows blurred and shimmering behind the thick curtain of rain. Lightning flashed across the sky as their carriage came to a halt before the great oak front doors, which stood at the top of a flight of stone steps.

People who had occupied the carriages in front were already hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Tera, Fred, George and Callum jumped down from their carriage and dashed up the steps too, looking up only when they were safely inside the cavernous, torch-lit entrance hall, with its magnificent marble staircase.

Shuffling around to avoid bumping into other people who were in different stages of soaked, Tera ended up standing next to Harry, whose hair was plastered to his forehead. "Hullo Harry."

"Hi Tera." He said with a smile, right before all hell broke loose.

A large, red, water-filled balloon had dropped from out of the ceiling onto Ron's head and exploded. Drenched and sputtering, Ron staggered sideways into Harry, just as a second water bomb dropped - narrowly missing Hermione, it burst at Harry's feet, sending a wave of cold water over his sneakers as well as Tera's.

"What the hell?" yelled Tera as she tried to shake the water out of her shoes, hating the sopping wet feeling. People all around them shrieked and started pushing one another in their efforts to get out of the line of fire. Harry and Tera both looked up and saw, floating twenty feet above them, Peeves the Poltergeist, a little man in a bell-covered hat and orange bow tie, his wide, malicious face contorted with concentration as he took aim again.

"PEEVES!" yelled an angry voice. "Peeves, come down here at ONCE!" Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress and head of Gryffindor House, had come dashing out of the Great Hall; she skidded on the wet floor and grabbed Hermione around the neck, stopping herself from taking what could have been a nasty fall. "Ouch - sorry, Miss Granger -"

"That's all right, Professor!" Hermione gasped, massaging her throat with one hand and helping steady Professor McGonagall with the other.

"Peeves, get down here NOW!" barked Professor McGonagall, straightening her pointed hat and glaring upward through her square-rimmed spectacles.

"Not doing nothing!" cackled Peeves, lobbing a water bomb at several fifth-year girls, who screamed and dived into the Great Hall. "Already wet, aren't they? Little squirts! Wheeeeeeeeee!" And he aimed another bomb at a group of second years who had just arrived.

"I shall call the headmaster!" shouted Professor McGonagall. "I'm warning you, Peeves -"

Peeves stuck out his tongue, threw the last of his water bombs into the air, and zoomed off up the marble staircase, cackling insanely.

"At least it wasn't paint…" Tera mumbled, distinctly remembering her lime green hair after an incident involving Peeves.

"Well, move along, then!" said Professor McGonagall sharply to the bedraggled crowd. "Into the Great Hall, come on!"

Tera held onto Fred and George's hands as they slipped and slid their way into the Great Hall, heading over to take their usual spots, Tera as usual joining them at their table instead of her own.

The Great Hall looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleamed by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles, floating over the tables in midair. The four long House tables were packed with chattering students; at the top of the Hall, the staff sat along one side of a fifth table, facing their pupils. It was much warmer in here.

Looking up at the staff table, Tera had to wonder who was going to be filling the role of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year. To be honest she really wished Lupin would be back this year, but she knew that wasn't going to happen. Hopefully it's not another teacher who has no clue what they're doing like that imbecilic Lockhart. He had to have been the worst teacher ever in Tera's opinion.

"Oh hurry up," Ron moaned, beside Harry, just three seats down from Tera, "I could eat a hippogriff."

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the doors of the Great Hall opened and silence fell. Professor McGonagall was leading a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall. If they were wet, it was nothing to how these first years looked. They appeared to have swum across the lake rather than sailed. All of them were shivering with a combination of cold and nerves as they filed along the staff table and came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the school - all of them except the smallest of the lot, a boy with mousy hair, who was wrapped in what Tera scarcely recognized as Hagrid's moleskin overcoat. The coat was so big for him that it looked as though he were draped in a furry black circus tent. His small face protruded from over the collar, looking almost painfully excited. When he had lined up with his terrified-looking peers, he caught Colin Creevey's, whom Tera assumed is his older brother, eye, gave a double thumbs-up, and mouthed, 'I fell in the lake!' He looked positively delighted about it.

Professor McGonagall now placed a three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and, on top of it, an extremely old, dirty patched wizard's hat. The first years stared at it. So did everyone else. For a moment, there was silence. Then a long tear near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat broke into song:

_A thousand years or more ago,_

_When I was newly sewn,_

_There lived four wizards of renown,_

_Whose names are still well known:_

_Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor,_

_Fair Ravenclaw, from glen,_

_Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad,_

_Shrewd Slytherin, from fin._

_They shared a wish, a hope, a dream,_

_They hatched a daring plan_

_To educate young sorcerers_

_Thus Hogwarts School began._

_Now each of these four founders_

_Formed their own house, for each_

_Did value different virtues_

_In the ones they had to teach._

_By Gryffindor, the bravest were_

_Prized far beyond the rest;_

_For Ravenclaw, the cleverest_

_Would always be the best;_

_For Hufflepuff, hard workers were_

_Most worthy of admission;_

_And power-hungry Slytherin_

_Loved those of great ambition._

_While still alive they did divide_

_Their favorites from the throng,_

_Yet how to pick the worthy ones_

_When they were dead and gone?_

'_Twas Gryffindor who found the way,_

_He whipped me off his head_

_The founders put some brains in me_

_So I could choose instead!_

_Now slip me snug about your ears,_

_I've never yet been wrong,_

_I'll have a look inside your mind_

_And tell where you belong!_

The Great Hall rang with applause as the Sorting Hat finished.

"That's not the song it sang when it Sorted us," said Harry, clapping along with everyone else.

"Sings a different one every year," said Ron. "It's got to be a pretty boring life, hasn't it, being a hat? I suppose it spends all year making up the next one."

Professor McGonagall was now unrolling a large scroll of parchment.

And so went the sorting until the last student was placed.

"About time," said Ron, seizing his knife and fork and looking expectantly at his golden plate.

Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was smiling around at the students, his arms opened wide in welcome. "I have only two words to say to you," he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."

"Hear, hear!" said Harry and Ron loudly as the empty dishes filled magically before their eyes.

Nearly Headless Nick watched mournfully as Harry, Ron, and Hermione loaded their own plates.

"Aaah, 'at's be'er," said Ron, with his mouth full of mashed potato, Tera rolled her eyes and chuckled, know how Ron is with food when his stomach gets louder than he is.

"You're lucky there's a feast at all tonight, you know," said Nearly Headless Nick. "There was trouble in the kitchens earlier."

"Why? Wha' 'appened?" said Harry, through a sizable chunk of steak, Tera looked up from cutting her own steak to hear what Nick had to say.

"Peeves, of course," said Nearly Headless Nick, shaking his head, which wobbled dangerously. He pulled his ruff a little higher up on his neck. "The usual argument, you know. He wanted to attend the feast - well, it's quite out of the question, you know what he's like, utterly uncivilized, can't see a plate of food without throwing it. We held a ghost's council - the Fat Friar was all for giving him the chance – but most wisely, in my opinion, the Bloody Baron put his foot down."

The Bloody Baron was the Slytherin ghost, a gaunt and silent specter covered in silver bloodstains. He was the only person at Hogwarts who could really control Peeves, though not very many people were willing to talk to him to have him reprimand Peeves, most left that to the teachers.

Nick talked more about what happened, though once he mentioned house-elves, Tera knew what Hermione's reaction would be, and of course she was right. The poor girl refused to eat another bite when she found out that it had been made by house-elves. Looks like Tera would have to keep an eye out for her friend and make sure she didn't get herself in over her head.

Once dessert was done, after Ron tried to convince Hermione to eat, and failed, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, leaving them sparkling clean, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. The buzz of chatter filling the Hall ceased almost at once, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.

"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered," ("Hmph!" said Hermione) "I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it." The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year. It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"What?" Harry gasped, looking around at Fred and George, his fellow members of the Quidditch team. They were mouthing soundlessly at Dumbledore, apparently too appalled to speak. Tera herself was thoroughly confused.

Dumbledore went on, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and

continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy - but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts -"

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall turned toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of unkept, dark gray hair, and then began to walk up toward the teachers' table. A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling, and Hermione and Tera both gasped, their eyes wide as they looked upon the stranger.

The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp clarity, and it was a face unlike any Tera had ever seen. It looked as though it had been carved out of weathered wood by someone who had only the vaguest idea of what human faces are supposed to look like, and was none too skilled with a chisel. Every inch of skin seemed to be scarred. The mouth looked like a diagonal gash, and a large chunk of the nose was missing. But it was the man's eyes that made him frightening.

One of them was small, dark, and beady. The other was large, round as a coin, and a vivid, electric blue. The blue eye was moving continually, without blinking, and was rolling up, down, and from side to side, quite independently of the normal eye - and then it rolled right over, pointing into the back of the man's head, so that all they could see was whiteness.

Watching his eye do that, Tera had to shudder, even more so when just a second later that eye was trained on her, it felt as though it was looking right through her and could see her every secret. Tera gave another shudder and hide her face in Fred's bicep, not wanting to see the man's eye look at her another moment.

When the stranger reached Dumbledore, Tera finally looked up, relieved that eye wasn't looking at her anymore. He stretched out a hand that was as badly scarred as his face, and Dumbledore shook it, muttering words even Tera couldn't quite hear. He seemed to be making some inquiry of the stranger, who shook his head unsmilingly and replied in a hushed undertone. Dumbledore nodded and gestured the man to the empty seat on his right-hand side.

The stranger sat down, shook his mane of dark gray hair out of his face, pulled a plate of sausages toward him, raised it to what was left of his nose, and sniffed it, as though checking to make sure it was edible. He then took a small knife out of his pocket, speared a sausage on the end of it, and began to eat. His normal eye was fixed upon the sausages, but the blue eye was still darting restlessly around in its socket, taking in the Hall and the students.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

It was usual for new staff members to be greeted with applause, but none of the staff or students clapped except Dumbledore and Hagrid, who both put their hands together and applauded, but the sound echoed dismally into the silence, and they stopped fairly quickly. Everyone else seemed too transfixed by Moody's bizarre appearance to do more than stare at him.

Moody seemed totally indifferent to his less-than-warm welcome. Ignoring the jug of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached again into his traveling cloak, pulled out a hip flask, and took a long draught from it. As he lifted his arm to drink, his cloak was pulled a few inches from the ground, and Tera saw, below the table, several inches of carved wooden leg, ending in a clawed foot.

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"As I was saying," he said, smiling at the sea of students before him, all of whom were still gazing transfixed at Mad-Eye Moody, "we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" exclaimed Fred loudly.

The tension that had filled the Hall ever since Moody's arrival suddenly broke. Nearly everyone laughed, and Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively.

"I am not joking, Mr. Weasley," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar."

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Er - but maybe this is not the time… no…" said Dumbledore, "where was I? Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament… well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves, so I hope those who do know will forgive me for giving a short explanation, and allow their attention to wander freely. The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities - until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued."

"Death toll?" Hermione and Tera both whispered, looking alarmed. But their anxiety did not seem to be shared by the majority of students in the Hall; many of them were whispering excitedly to one another, and Harry himself seemed far more interested in hearing about the tournament than in worrying about deaths that had happened hundreds of years ago.

"There have been several attempts over the centuries to reinstate the tournament," Dumbledore continued, "none of which has been very successful. However, our own departments of International Magical Cooperation and Magical Games and Sports have decided the time is ripe for another attempt. We have worked hard over the summer to ensure that this time; no champion will find himself or herself in mortal danger. The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October, and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"I'm going for it!" Fred hissed down the table, his face lit with enthusiasm at the prospect of such glory and riches. He was not the only person who seemed to be visualizing himself as the Hogwarts champion. At every House table, Tera could see people either gazing raptly at Dumbledore, or else whispering fervently to their neighbors. But then Dumbledore spoke again, and the Hall quieted once more.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," he said, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age - that is to say, seventeen years or older - will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration. This" — Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, for several people had made noises of outrage at these words, and Tera's boys who were suddenly looking furious - "is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion." His light blue eyes twinkled as they flickered over Fred and George's mutinous faces.

Tera herself, though she wouldn't admit it to the twins, was glad there was an age restriction, she wouldn't want the people she cares about possibly getting themselves hurt just cause of their pride and want of glory. Being friends with Gryffindor's could sometimes frazzle ones nerves.

"I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving in October and remaining with us for the greater part of this year. I know that you will all extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us, and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, it is late, and I know how important it is to you all to be alert and rested as you enter your lessons tomorrow morning. Bedtime! Chop chop!" Dumbledore sat down again and turned to talk to Mad-Eye Moody.

There was a great scraping and banging as all the students got to their feet and swarmed toward the double doors into the entrance hall, the excited chatter flowing freely.

"They can't do that!" said George, who had not joined the crowd moving toward the door, but was standing up and glaring at Dumbledore. "We're seventeen in April, why can't we have a shot?"

"They're not stopping me entering," said Fred stubbornly, also scowling at the top table. "The champions'll get to do all sorts of stuff you'd never be allowed to do normally. And a thousand Galleons prize money!"

"Yeah," said Ron, a faraway look on his face. "Yeah, a thousand Galleons…"

"Come on," said Hermione, "we'll be the only ones left here if you don't move."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Tera, Fred, and George set off for the entrance hall, Fred and George debating the ways in which Dumbledore might stop those who were under seventeen from entering the tournament while Tera just shook her head at their stubbornness.

"Who's this impartial judge who's going to decide who the champions are?" said Harry.

"Dunno," said Fred, "but it's them we'll have to fool. I reckon a couple of drops of Aging Potion might do it, George…"

"Dumbledore knows you're not of age, though," said Ron, Tera nodded her head in agreement.

"Yeah, but he's not the one who decides who the champion is, is he?" said Fred shrewdly. "Sounds to me like once this judge knows who wants to enter, he'll choose the best from each school and never mind how old they are. Dumbledore's trying to stop us giving our names."

"People have died, though!" said Hermione in a worried voice as they walked through a door concealed behind a tapestry and started up another, narrower staircase.

"Hermione's right, and no matter what they do to make it safer there is still the risk of it happening." said Tera, her own voice full of worry and reservation.

"Yeah," said Fred airily, "but that was years ago, wasn't it? Anyway, where's the fun without a bit of risk? Hey, Ron, what if we find out how to get 'round Dumbledore? Fancy entering?"

"What d'you reckon?" Ron asked Harry. "Be cool to enter, wouldn't it? But I s'pose they might want someone older… Dunno if we've learned enough…"

"I definitely haven't," came Neville's gloomy voice from behind Fred and George. "I expect my gran'd want me to try, though. She's always going on about how I should be upholding the family honor. I'll just have to — oops…"

Neville's foot had sunk right through a step halfway up the staircase. There were many of these trick stairs at Hogwarts; it was second nature to most of the older students to jump this particular step, but Neville's memory was notoriously poor. Harry and Ron seized him under the armpits and pulled him out, while a suit of armor at the top of the stairs creaked and clanked, laughing wheezily.

Tera sighed and hugged her boys, who absentmindedly hugged her back before they made their way up the stairs, still plotting ways to get themselves into the tournament. Making her way back down the stairs, Tera headed to the Hufflepuff tapestry, mumbling this year's password, "To see the truth, one must look with eyes unclouded." Tiredly making her way towards her dormitory, Tera smiled lightly and waved at Cedric Diggory, though they had broken up at Christmas, they were still friendly with each other, instead choosing to be good friends.

When Tera entered her dormitory she was pounced on by a colorful ball of fuzz, Pixie purred and rubbed against her leg affectionately. Smiling Tera picked her up, holding her close and nuzzling her face into her fur. "Why do boys have to be so stubborn?" she grumbled. Setting Pixie down Tera pulled out her pajamas and got ready for bed, climbing in she curled up, Pixie resting against her tummy and quickly fell asleep.

The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Harry, Ron Tera, and Hermione examined their new course schedules at breakfast. A few seats along, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament.

Tera rolled her eyes, were they ever going to give up on the idea of sneaking their way into it?

"Today's not bad… outside all morning," said Ron, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs," at this Tera smiled, enjoying getting to have classes with them. "And Care of Magical Creatures… damn it; we're still with the Slytherins…"

"Looks like I got transferred out of your class this year, I have Transfiguration after Herbology." said Tera around a bit of toast.

"Double Divination this afternoon," Harry groaned, looking down glumly.

"You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" said Hermione briskly, buttering herself some toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy."

Tera groaned, remembering that she had spaced on one of the summer assignments from her Arithmancy class, she's just have to crank it out during lunch.

"You're eating again, I notice," said Ron, watching Hermione adding liberal amounts of jam to her toast.

Tera smiled, she had tried to talk to Hermione about how starving herself wasn't going to help the house elves any and had laughed when Hermione had started to argue, but gave up when her stomach got louder than her arguing.

"I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights," said Hermione haughtily.

"Yeah… and you were hungry," said Ron, grinning when grabbing himself some toast as well.

There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. Tera just grab another piece of toast, adding a bit of raspberry jam to it, she wasn't expecting to be getting anything in the mail.

Once they made it to Herbology, Tera grimaced, her breakfast rebelling against her when she heard what they were going to be doing in class today. By the end of the lesson they had collected several pints of the disgusting goo.

"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy," said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."

"Like poor Eloise Midgen," said Hannah Abbott in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."

"Oh I remember that, she blew her nose clean off. Didn't it land in an older girl's hair?" Tera asked with a giggle, remembering the incident faintly.

"Silly girl," said Professor Sprout, shaking her head. "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end."

A booming bell echoed from the castle across the wet grounds, signaling the end of the lesson, and the class separated; the Hufflepuffs climbing the stone steps for Transfiguration, and the Gryffindors heading in the other direction, down the sloping lawn toward Hagrid's small wooden cabin, which stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Walking back inside, Tera scowled as she head a cold drawling voice, seems Malfoy just couldn't get over the fact that Hagrid hadn't been sacked, and his father had been made to look the fool. Rolling her eyes Tera walked past him, ignoring his sneering call of "Howell, where oh where are your freckle faced freaks?"

Tera listened and took notes dutifully during Transfiguration, smiling brightly when Professor McGonagall smiled and nodded as she looked over her shoulder at her notes. Class went by quickly and soon it was time for lunch. Tera quickly made herself a plate of food, scarfing it down as quickly as possible, ignoring the twin's comments about not choking then quickly getting up and heading towards the library, wanting to finish her last bit of Arithmancy work before class started.

Tera had been thankful she finished her work in the library, since everyone in the class had finished their work from over the summer, Professor Vector had decided not to assign any homework. Tera was all smiles as she and Hermione left the class room to join Harry and Ron on their way to the Great Hall.

Upon nearly catching up to them they heard Ron grumbling. "Miserable old bat… That'll take all weekend, that will…"

"Lots of homework?" said Hermione brightly, as she and Tera caught up with them. "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all!"

"Well, bully for Professor Vector," said Ron moodily.

They reached the entrance hall, which was packed with people queuing for dinner. They had just joined the end of the line, when a loud voice rang out behind them.

"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"

Harry, Ron, Tera, and Hermione turned. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.

"What?" said Ron shortly.

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!"

_FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC_

_It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office._

Malfoy looked up.

"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed.

Tera narrowed her eyes, knowing that Malfoy was going to say something else that would make her want to punch him.

Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:

_Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene_.

"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

Ron was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.

"Get stuffed, Malfoy," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron…"

"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Malfoy. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"

"Malfoy, shut your gob." Tera growled, helping Hermione and Harry hold Ron back, but also wanting to punch a few of Malfoy's teeth out.

"You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Harry, "that expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"

Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."

"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," said Harry, turning away.

BANG!

Tera pushed Ron towards Hermione, and reached into her pocket, grabbing for her wand. "You dirty Ferret! You leave Harry alone!" she growled, still trying to get her wand out of her pocket.

Several people screamed - Harry plunged his hand into his robes for his wand, but before he'd even touched it, there was a second loud BANG, and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"

Harry spun around and Tera looked up, her eyes wide. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing. There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. Moody turned to look at Harry — at least, his normal eye was looking at Harry; the other one was pointing into the back of his head.

"Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly.

"No," said Harry, "missed."

Tera was staring down at the Ferret with wide eyes, did he just- ?

"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted.

"Leave - what?" Harry said, bewildered.

Tera looked up in confusion, her eyes darting around to see what Moody was yelling about.

"Not you - him!" Moody growled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Crabbe, who had just frozen, about to pick up the white ferret. It seemed that Moody's rolling eye was magical and could see out of the back of his head.

Moody started to limp toward Crabbe, Goyle, and the ferret, which gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking toward the dungeons.

"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again - it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more.

"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do…"

"Oh no… that's not right…." Tera mumbled, staring helplessly as Moody bounced the ferret to and fro.

The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly. "Never - do - that - again -" said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.

"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice.

Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.

"What - what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.

"Teaching," said Moody.

"Teach - Moody, is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.

"Yep," said Moody.

"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing. "Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall wealdy. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock -"

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Malfoy with great dislike.

Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable.

"Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy… You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son… you tell him that from me… Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"

"Yes," said Malfoy resentfully.

"Another old friend," growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape… Come on, you…"

And he seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons.

Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms.

"Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to Harry, Tera and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.

"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.

"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."

Harry and Hermione both laughed, Tera just rolled her eyes and chuckled, waiting for the twins to make their appearance Hermione began doling beef casserole onto each of their plates.

"He could have really hurt Malfoy, though," she said. "It was good, really, that Professor McGonagall stopped it -"

"Hermione!" said Ron furiously, his eyes snapping open again, "you're ruining the best moment of my life!"

Hermione made an impatient noise and began to eat at top speed again.

"Don't tell me you're going back to the library this evening?" said Harry, watching her.

"Got to," said Hermione thickly. "Loads to do."

"Mione, you really should sit and enjoy dinner with us…" mumbled Tera as she picked at her casserole.

Hermione gave her a pointed look, before returning to her food once more.

"But you told us Professor Vector -"

"It's not schoolwork," she said. Within five minutes, she had cleared her plate and departed. No sooner had she gone than her seat was taken by Fred.

"Moody!" he said. "How cool is he?"

"Beyond cool," said George, sitting down opposite Fred.

"Supercool," said the twins' best friend, Lee Jordan, sliding into the seat beside George. "We had him this afternoon," he told Harry and Ron.

"What was it like?" said Harry eagerly.

Fred, George, and Lee exchanged looks full of meaning.

"Never had a lesson like it," said Fred.

"He knows, man," said Lee.

"Knows what?" said Ron, leaning forward.

"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it," said George impressively.

"Doing what?" said Harry.

"Fighting the Dark Arts," said Fred.

"He's seen it all," said George.

"Mazing," said Lee.

Ron dived into his bag for his schedule.

"We haven't got him till Thursday!" he said in a disappointed voice.

Tera looked at her own schedule and saw that she too didn't have Moody's class until Thursday, she really didn't want to do to his class, there was just something about him that wasn't right.

When Thursday did finally roll around Tera followed the eager Gryffindor's to their DADA class, taking a seat next to Neville who looked wary about what might happen in the class.

Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited.

Moody did roll call, shaking out his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted, scarred face. Calling out names, his normal eye making its way down the list, while his magical eye swiveled and turned, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.

Tera shivered as that eye turned itself upon her, seeming to stay on her longer than most of the other students.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures - you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark -"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled - the first time Harry had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago… Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore… One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So - straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

Lavender looked at Moody in shock, a blush flaming across her face. She had been showing Parvati her finished horoscope under the desk. Apparently not only could Moody's magical eye see through the back of his head, but also through solid wood.

"So… do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's, Tera's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender who squirmed with unease.

"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one… Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

Tera stared down at the desk; remember everything her mother had told her about that particular curse.

"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody grunted as he heavily got to his mismatched feet. Opening the desk drawer he took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Out of the corner of her eye Tera saw Ron recoil, his hatred of spiders shining through. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

After watching the spider do whatever Moody wanted it to, Tera looking down at her desk intently the entire time, they switched to the next curse.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to even Tera's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville, causing Tera to shudder slightly, still not used to that.

"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes. "Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, nodding his head in agreement with himself then pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"

The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretense, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible. Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Tera was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently - "Stop it!" Hermione and Tera both yelled shrilly.

Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified. Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.

"Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse… That one was very popular once too.

"Right… anyone know any others?"

Tera knew which one was coming next, but instead of paying attention she tried to comfort Neville, who was white as fresh fallen snow and shaking slightly as he tried in vain to focus on what Moody was saying.

Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.

Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra… the Killing Curse."

He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.

Moody raised his wand, and Tera scrunched her eyes shut, grabbing Neville's hand and squeezing it in a way that was supposed to be comforting but was more comfort seeking.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air - instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him. Tera squeezed Neville's hand so hard she was worried he might lose circulation to it.

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

The entire class turned their eyes to Harry, a whisper rising amongst them.

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it - you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it. Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and the whole class jumped again.

Tera herself nearly spilled her inkwell when she jumped.

"Now… those three curses - Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus - are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills… copy this down…"

They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang - but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices –

"Did you see it twitch?"

"- and when he killed it – just like that!"

Tera growled and shoved past the ones who were talking excitedly, quickly making her way to the Great Hall and sitting down next to the twins, who took in the vibes she was putting off and chose to remain silent, each just looking at her with a slight bit of worry.

After dinner Tera headed up to the Owlery, wanting to just get away from everyone and to spend a bit of time with Thor. Whistling lightly she held her arms out just moments before a handsome golden screech owl landed on it, ruffling his feathers then hooting at her dotingly.

"Hello Handsome, how are you enjoying being back with your friends?" Tera asked, stroking his cheek with a smile.

Thor nuzzled her hand and hooted, causing Tera to smile as he looked up at Harry's beautiful snowy owl Hedwig.

"Ah, you and Hedwig huh? Cute." Tera said with a giggle. After spending an hour in the Owlery Tera bid Thor a farewell, gave him a treat and decided to turn in for the night.

The next day Tera sat down in her usual set next to Neville, looking at Professor Moody in her usual wary way, shocked when he told them that they were going to be put under the Imperius Curse to demonstrate its power and to see whether or not they can resist its effects.

"But - but you said it's illegal, Professor," said Hermione uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said - to use it against another human was -"

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way - when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely - fine by me. You're excused. Off you go." He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door. Hermione went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. Harry and Ron grinned at each other and Tera just sighed, putting away the book she had started reading until class started. Everyone knew Hermione would rather eat bubotuber pus than miss such an important lesson.

Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Tera and Harry both watched as, one by one, their classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel, making Tera wish she had an acorn to toss at her. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.

"Potter," Moody growled, "you next."

Harry moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Harry, and said, "Imperio!"

Tera watched at Harry's face went black, a calm expression over shadowing his one of worry. His eyes though seemed to show the fight her was putting up to Moody's control, after a few moments he shakily lowered himself into a crouch, ready to jump. But just as he was about to he fought a bit more and crashed head long into one of the desks.

"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody. "Look at that, you lot… Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention - watch his eyes, that's where you see it - very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"

After a few more times of Harry fighting Moody's control it was Tera's turn. As she stood in front of the classroom she looked over at Harry, who gave her an encouraging smile around his wince of pain as he rubbed his poor knees.

Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Tera, and said, "Imperio!"

It was the most wonderful and strange feeling. She felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in her head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. She stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching her, wondering how she would do.

And then she heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of her empty brain: **You are a ballet dancer, now dance girl… dance…**

Tera smiled, her hands coming in front of her as she prepared to do as the voice told her to.

_Why should I?_ came a voice from the back of her brain that caused her to pause, her brow scrunching ever so slightly. _This is a classroom, not a dance floor._

**Dance... Do it... Do it now!**

_But I don't want to… I'll make a fool out of myself._ argued the voice with a bit more strength.

**Dance!**

_No, I really don't feel like making a fool of myself,_ said that voice more firmly, a bit of a growl to its voice.

**Dance! RIGHT NOW!**

_I SAID NO!_ the voice roared as Tera fell to the ground, her eyes watering. She looked around at everyone, starring at her with eyes full of confusion and then glanced up at Moody with a glare, got up, and ignoring the hand he offered she stormed out of the classroom, the tears flowing freely down her face.

Moody told the class to sit and talk amongst themselves as he followed after her, after a few minutes he found her sitting on a windowsill, her face buried in her knees.

"Miss Howell, that was remarkable in there. You fought it off… and yet you aren't happy… Why is that?" asked Moody and he heavily sat down next to her.

Tera sniffled, turning her head to be able to look out the window. "Because… I now know how little control she had… and how much he did… Never again…" she whispered, low enough that Moody barely heard it.

"What are you talking about girl?" Moody grumbled, massaging his leg and pulling out his flask, taking a big gulp.

Tera wiped her face with shaking hands and sighed, slowly getting to her feet. "Nothing Professor… I'm sorry that I ran out of class. I-I wasn't feeling well."

Moody stared at her for a moment; his magical eye seemed to stare into her soul before he got up and turned to head back to the classroom. "Come back when you're ready." He said gruffly before hobbling back to finish his lesson.

Tera sat back down and looked out the window, resting her forehead against the glass. "Oh mum…" she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Fred and George rounded the corner, smiling and giving each other high fives, they had just set up a few booby-traps for Filch and were sneaking back to Professor Binns classroom, thankful he got so into his lectures that he never notices when they sneak out to cause mayhem. They stopped short though when the saw a familiar head of hair staring out the window. With smiled to each other they slowly snuck up on the person and then pounced, causing the person to jump, wiping at their face.

"Ter… what's wrong?" asked George, noticing the slight redness in her eyes and her tear stained cheeks. "What are you doing out here?"

Fred sat down next to her, pulling her against him in a hug. "Come on love, tell us what's up."

Tera shook her head, pushing away from Fred. "I'm fine… I wasn't feeling well s-so Moody let me come out here… my head was bothering me…" she mumbled, not wanting them to worry.

"Ter, you're fibbing and we all know it, now seriously, what's bothering you?" George asked, sitting down on her other side and tilting his head, his face full of concern for his favorite Hufflepuff.

"Love, you know you can tell us anything. Now what's bothering our girl?" said Fred, pulling her back against him and smiling when she didn't move away.

"We got to experience the Imperius Curse today in Moody's class…" she mumbled, sniffling slightly.

"What silly thing did he make you do and how embarrassed were you?" asked George with a laugh, remembering when they went through that in his class.

Tera looked up at him, her eyes watering up again. "He didn't make me do anything and I wasn't embarrassed."

"Then what is it love? What has you so upset?" asked Fred, hating seeing her like this.

"I now know how she felt, to have no control… a voice telling you what to do… I hated it so much…" she mumbled, hiding her face in Fred's chest.

The twins looked at each other over Tera's head, realization dawning on them. Her mother and what she had gone through before Tera was born, that's what had upset her about today's class.

Fred pulled the girl closer, his face buried in her hair as he whispered soothing words to her, rocking her back and forth as she cried lightly, finally revealing how shaken up she really was.

George just smiled, seeing what the two people closest to him seemed to be blind to. After another ten minutes Tera had calmed down, only a bit of redness to her eyes giving away that she had been crying.

"You going to be okay now love? We can sit with you longer if you need." Fred offered, still holding her close and gently stroking her hair.

Tera smiled lightly, hugging Fred around the waist. "Thank you Freddie. I'll be fine, you two need to get back to class before Binns notices you're missing. He does occasionally look at his students."

Fred and George both hugged her, kissing her forehead before they hurried on down the corridor and out of sight.

The rest of the day went without too much fuss, the usual whining about homework, people getting excited over the Triwizard Tournament and Malfoy being his normal annoying self. All in all a typical day at Hogwarts, but soon it wouldn't be just Hogwarts students roaming the halls, no they would be joined by some of the best students that Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had to offer. She had even heard that Cedric planned on putting his name forth to be the Hogwarts Champion.

She just hoped the twins wouldn't be able to submit theirs for she would worry to no end over her boys; she was already worried for Cedric since he was still a good friend of hers.

What would October 30th bring about for Tera and the rest of Hogwarts?


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Alright lovies! So I started work on the third chapter as quick as I could, many headache and down cups of coffee later here she is! Today Jan 4****th**** is my younger brother's 13****th**** birthday and while he is a butthead, I love him to death. Much love to ruler of dragons for the excellent reviews on chapter 2 and to ElephantShoes for her continued support of this story. Also to Ali whomever you are, thanks for loving Tera so much and thank you for the reviews. I hope you all enjoy the chapter, let me know what you think in a review and if you have anything you'd like to know just drop me a PM. Show your love for Tera and I thank you for reading! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; if I did there would have been a lot less deaths, and more happy endings. I do however own this story and my Characters Tera, her family and her pets. There are some excerpts from the book in this chapter, but I tried to make them from Tera's point of view and may have changed very tiny details in the story itself. No hating, just read and enjoy the Tera moments in their random abundance. I hope you all enjoy, and leave me a review. Much love to you, now enjoy the story.**

**Chapter Three**

**The Choosing of Champions**

On October 30th, Tera hurried to the Hufflepuff common room, dropping off her bag, throwing on her cloak and following the rest of the students outside to greet the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. They filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest. Huddling herself next to Fred and George she breathed into her hands to warm them up, glancing down at her watch and seeing it was nearly 6 o'clock. "How do you reckon they're getting here?"

"Train maybe?" suggested George.

"I doubt it, maybe by Portkey? Or maybe they'll Apparate." said Fred.

"You can't Apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds, Hermione reminds us of that so often I'm surprised you even mentioned it." Tera said while shaking her head.

They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was moving; everything was still, silent, and quite as usual. Tera was starting to feel cold, rubbing her hands up and down her arms in hopes of warming them some. She really wished the delegates would hurry up…

Fred looked over at Tera's shivering form and pulled her back against his chest, tucking her within his cloak. "That better love?" he asked, smiling down at her.

Tera smiled up at him over her shoulder, a light blush on her cheeks. "Much better… thanks Freddie."

And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers - "Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"

"Where?" said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.

"There!" yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.

Something large was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.

"It's a dragon!" shrieked one of the first years, losing her head completely.

"Don't be stupid… it's a flying house!" said Dennis Creevey.

Dennis's guess was closer… As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit it, they saw a gigantic, powder blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring toward them, pulled through the air by a dozen winged horses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.

The front three rows of students drew backward as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed - then, with an almighty crash that made Neville jump backward onto a Slytherin fifth year's foot, the horses' hooves, larger than dinner plates, hit the ground. A second later, the carriage landed too, bouncing upon its vast wheels, while the golden horses tossed their enormous heads and rolled large, fiery red eyes.

Tera barely had time to see the coat of arms on the carriage door before it opened, a boy in pale blue robes jumped down, bent forward and fumbled with something on the carriage for a moment before a set of golden steps unfolded. He sprang back up respectfully as a shining; high-heeled black shoe emerged from the inside of the carriage- a shoe the size of a child's sled - followed by the largest woman Tera had ever seen. Immediately the large proportions of the transportation suddenly made perfect sense. A few people gasped.

The only person Tera could think of that came close to being as large as this woman was Hagrid, she couldn't be sure which of them was larger, though since this woman was new to her she seemed even more unnaturally large. As she stepped into the light flooding from the entrance hall, she was revealed to have a handsome, olive-skinned face; large, black, liquid-looking eyes; and a rather beaky nose. Her hair was drawn back in a shining knob at the base of her neck. She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.

Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.

Her face relaxed into a gracious smile and she walked forward toward Dumbledore, extending a glittering hand. Dumbledore, though tall himself, had barely to bend to kiss it.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he said. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dort," said Madame Maxime in a deep voice. "I 'ope I find you well?"

"In excellent form, I thank you," said Dumbledore.

"My pupils," said Madame Maxime, waving one of her enormous hands carelessly behind her.

Tera looked past Madam Maxime, noticing that about a dozen boys and girls, all seemingly in their late teens, had emerged from the carriage and were now standing behind Madam Maxime. They were shivering, which was not surprising in the least, their robes seemed to be made of fine silk and none of them were wearing cloaks. A few had the foresight to have wrapped scarves and shawls around their heads. From what could be seen of them, since they were standing in Madam Maxime's enormous shadow, they were staring up at Hogwarts with hesitant looks on their faces.

"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime asked.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you prefer to step inside and warm up a trifle?"

"Warm up, I think," said Madame Maxime. "But ze 'orses -"

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be delighted to take care of them," said Dumbledore, "the moment he has returned from dealing with a slight situation that has arisen with some of his other - er - charges."

"My steeds require - er - forceful 'andling," said Madame Maxime, looking as though she doubted whether any Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts could be up to the job. "Zey are very strong…"

"I assure you that Hagrid will be well up to the job," said Dumbledore, smiling.

"Very well," said Madame Maxime, bowing slightly. "Will you please inform zis 'Agrid zat ze 'orses drink only single-malt whiskey?"

"It will be attended to," said Dumbledore, also bowing.

"Come," said Madame Maxime imperiously to her students, and the Hogwarts crowd parted to allow her and her students to pass up the stone steps.

They stood, shivering slightly now, waiting for the Durmstrang party to arrive. Most people were gazing hopefully up at the sky.

For a few minutes, the silence was broken only by Madame Maxime's huge horses snorting and stamping. But then - "Can you hear something?" said Ron suddenly. Tera listened; a loud and oddly eerie noise was drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed.

"The lake!" yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. "Look at the lake!"

From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water - except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the center; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks - and then, out in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake's floor… What seemed to be a long, black pole began to rise slowly out of the heart of the whirlpool… and then they saw the rigging…

"It's a mast!" Harry said to Ron and Hermione, loud enough for Tera and the twins to hear.

Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, misty lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noise, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to glide toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the splash of an anchor being thrown down in the shallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.

People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship's portholes. All of them, Tera noticed with mild surprise, seemed to be built along the lines of Crabbe and Goyle… but then, as they drew nearer, walking up the lawns into the light streaming from the entrance hall, she saw that their bulk was really due to the fact that they were wearing cloaks of some kind of shaggy, matted fur. But the man who was leading them up to the castle was wearing furs of a different sort: sleek and silver, like his hair.

"Dumbledore!" he called heartily as he walked up the slope. "How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore replied. Karkaroff had a fruity, obsequious voice; when he stepped into the light pouring from the front doors of the castle they saw that he was tall and thin like Dumbledore, but his white hair was short, and his goatee (finishing in a small curl) did not entirely hide his rather weak chin. When he reached Dumbledore, he shook hands with both of his own.

"Dear old Hogwarts," he said, looking up at the castle and smiling; his teeth were rather yellow and rotted, and Tera also noticed that his smile did not extend to his eyes, which remained cold and shrewd. "How good it is to be here, how good… Viktor, come along, into the warmth… you don't mind, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold…"

Karkaroff ushered one of his students forward, the moment people caught sight of him there was a barely hush murmur of excitement, Viktor Krum was one of the Durmstrang delegates.

As they made their way towards the castle Tera nudged Fred, indicating that it was time to head inside. Fred slowly unwound his arms from around Tera and let her out of his cloak, following closely behind her as all the Hogwarts students made their way inside.

As they re-crossed the entrance hall with the rest of the Hogwarts students heading for the Great Hall, Tera saw Lee Jordan jumping up and down on the soles of his feet to get a better look at the back of Krum's head which cause Tera to giggle when he slipped and nearly landed in a puddle.

Several sixth-year girls were frantically searching their pockets as they walked - "Oh I don't believe it; I haven't got a single quill on me -"

"D'you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?"

"Dear lord, you'd think people would have some tact not to fall all over themselves just for some guy because he's famous." Tera said while rolling her eyes.

When they made it into the Great Hall Tera took up her usual spot between the twins, smiling and waving to Cedric who had shook his head with a smile when he saw her sit at the Gryffindor table. Tera noticed that the Beauxbatons students had taken up seats with the Ravenclaws, and though Ron tried in vain, the Durmstrang students seated themselves amongst the Slytherins, causing Malfoy to puff up importantly.

When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. When their headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons leapt to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed. The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed, however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore's left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and - most particularly - guests," said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. "I have great pleasure in welcoming you all to Hogwarts. I hope and trust that your stay here will be both comfortable and enjoyable."

One of the Beauxbatons girls still clutching a muffler around her head gave what was unmistakably a derisive laugh.

"No one's making you stay!" Hermione whispered, bristling at her. Tera even glared at the girl, not liking her attitude one bit.

"The tournament will be officially opened at the end of the feast," said Dumbledore. "I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Tera had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.

"Oh wow… look at all this… You two are going to explode." Tera said with a giggle as she watched Fred and George help themselves to a bit of everything.

"We're famished!" said both boys before shoveling food into their faces.

The Great Hall seemed somehow much more crowded than usual, even though there were barely twenty additional students there; perhaps it was because their differently colored uniforms stood out so clearly against the black of the Hogwarts' robes. Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep blood red.

Hagrid sidled into the Hall through a door behind the staff table twenty minutes after the start of the feast. He slid into his seat at the end and waved at Harry, Ron, and Hermione with a very heavily bandaged hand.

"Wow… looks like the Skrewts got a bit nippy with Hagrid's hands…" Tera mumbled as she grabbed herself a dinner roll and broke it in half, nibbling on it. Looking to her left she watch in amusement as Ron's eyes nearly fell out of his head when a girl from Beauxbatons came over and asked for the bouillabaisse.

When the second course arrived they noticed a number of unfamiliar desserts too. Ron examined an odd sort of pale blancmange closely, and then moved it carefully a few inches to his right, so that it would be clearly visible from the Ravenclaw table. The girl who looked like a veela appeared to have eaten enough, however, and did not come over to get it.

Once the golden plates had been wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up again. A pleasant sort of tension seemed to fill the Hall now. Everyone in the Hall felt a slight thrill of excitement, wondering what was coming. Fred and George were leaning forward, staring at Dumbledore with great concentration.

"The moment has come," said Dumbledore, smiling around at the sea of upturned faces. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to say a few words of explanation before we bring in the casket —"

"The what?" Tera heard Harry mutter.

"- just to clarify the procedure that we will be following this year. But first, let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation" - there was a smattering of polite applause - "and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

There was a much louder round of applause for Bagman than for Crouch, perhaps because of his fame as a Beater, or simply because he looked so much more likable. He acknowledged it with a

jovial wave of his hand. Bartemius Crouch did not smile or wave when his name was announced. His toothbrush mustache and severe parting looked very odd next to Dumbledore's long white hair and beard.

"Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch have worked tirelessly over the last few months on the arrangements for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore continued, "and they will be joining myself, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime on the panel that will judge the champions' efforts."

At the mention of the word "champions," the attentiveness of the listening students seemed to sharpen. Perhaps Dumbledore had noticed their sudden stillness, for he smiled as he said, "The casket, then, if you please, Mr. Filch."

Filch, who had been lurking unnoticed in a far corner of the Hall, now approached Dumbledore carrying a great wooden chest encrusted with jewels. It looked extremely old. A murmur of excited interest rose from the watching students; Dennis Creevey actually stood on his chair to see it properly, but, being so tiny, his head hardly rose above anyone else's.

"The instructions for the tasks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman," said Dumbledore as Filch placed the chest carefully on the table before him, "and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challenge. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways… their magical prowess - their daring - their powers of deduction - and, of course, their ability to cope with danger."

At this last word, the Hall was filled with a silence so absolute that nobody seemed to be breathing.

"As you know, three champions compete in the tournament," Dumbledore went on calmly, "one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the Tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore now took out his wand and tapped three times upon the top of the casket. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames. Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it

would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.

"Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said Dumbledore. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete.

Tera glanced at the twins, knowing that no matter what they'd be adding their names to the goblet, heedless of the warnings.

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said Dumbledore, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross this line."

This caused Tera to let out a quiet sigh, leave it to Dumbledore to figure out a way of keeping her boys out of this.

"Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obliged to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all." finished Dumbledore before sitting back down and conversing with Karkaroff and the other adults.

"An Age Line!" Fred said, his eyes glinting, as they all made their way across the Hall to the doors into the entrance hall. "Well, that should be fooled by an Aging Potion, shouldn't it? And once your name's in that goblet, you're laughing - it can't tell whether you're seventeen or not!"

"But I don't think anyone under seventeen will stand a chance," said Hermione, "we just haven't learned enough…"

Tera nodded her assent, wishing Fred and George would stop with the need to prove themselves with this craziness.

"Speak for yourself," said George shortly. "You'll try and get in, won't you, Harry?"

Tera chose to ignore the rest of the conversation, quickly hugging her friends and heading to the Hufflepuff dormitories with only one thought in mind, sleep.

As the next day was Saturday, most students would normally have breakfasted late. Tera hadn't been able to sleep much so she finally crawled out of bed, got dressed and went down for breakfast, Pixie taking over her spot in the middle of the bed and dozing off. Sitting down at the Hufflepuff table for once, Tera sipped on her orange juice and nibbled on some toast, a book lying open in front of her.

All around her students were examining the Goblet of Fire with different degrees of interest. It had been placed in the center of the hall on the stool which normally bore the Sorting Hat. A thin golden line had been traced on the floor, forming a circle ten feet around it in every direction.

"Anyone put their name in yet?" Ron asked a third-year girl eagerly, moments after he, Harry and Hermione entered the Great Hall.

"All the Durmstrang lot," she replied. "But I haven't seen anyone from Hogwarts yet."

"Bet some of them put it in last night after we'd all gone to bed," said Harry. "I would've if it had been me… wouldn't have wanted everyone watching. What if the goblet just gobbed you right back out again?"

Someone laughed from the entrance, turning Tera saw Fred, George, and Lee Jordan hurrying down the staircase, all three of them looking extremely excited.

"Done it," Fred said in a triumphant whisper to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, just loud enough for Tera to hear. "Just taken it."

"What?" asked Ron in confusion.

"The Aging Potion, dung brains," said Fred, shaking his head at his younger brother's ignorance.

"One drop each," said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. "We only need to be a few months older."

"We're going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," said Lee, grinning broadly.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know," said Hermione warningly. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."

"I agree with Hermione." said Tera, turning to watch the boys, a frown on her face.

Fred, George, and Lee ignored them both.

"Ready?" Fred said to the other two, quivering with excitement. "C'mon, then - I'll go first -"

Tera watched as Fred pulled out a slip of parchment out of his pocket, the words _**Fred Weasley – Hogwarts **_scribbled across is in Fred usual scrawl. Fred confidently walked to the edge of the line and stood there, rocking on his toes like a cliff diver judging the wind before taking a fifty foot dive. Then, with everyone watching him, Fred took a deep breath and stepped over the line.

For a second it seemed as though it had worked, which had Tera's stomach in knots, _no please don't let them be able to do this_… George let out a yell of triumph and joined his brother inside the circle, each of them smiling at each other, but the next moment there was a loud sizzling sound and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been slammed into by a sledge hammer.

They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical long white beards.

Tera started giggling hysterically, getting to her feet and helping them up she gently started tugging on their beards with a smile. "Not your best look boys, you're much better looking clean shaven." she said around her giggles.

The entrance hall rang with laughter. Even Fred and George joined in, though they also started trying to tickle Tera with the ends of their beards. Tera giggled and smacked their hands away.

"I did warn you," said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. "I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr. Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours."

Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter. Tera herself decided to stay behind, wanting to finish reading her book.

The decorations in the Great Hall had changed this morning. As it was Halloween, a cloud of live bats was fluttering around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner.

Tera herself had toned down her Halloween spirit quite a bit this year, deciding instead to have simple dangly candy corn earrings and a sparkly black hair band holding back her loose curls. After she finished the last few pages left in her book she headed back to the Hufflepuff common room, smiling when Pixie hopped into her lap just moments after she sit down. "You have impeccable timing little one." She murmured into her cat's fur, scratching her behind the ears and giggling as she purred.

After a few minutes Cedric walked in, sitting down next to her on the couch. "Hey stranger, been a while since I saw you hanging around in our common room."

Tera smiled, rolling her eyes at him. "Yeah sorry about that, been busy trying to keep the twins from entering a contest that could result in getting them seriously hurt." She said, sounding every bit like a mother instead of a young girl.

"Yeah about that… don't be mad… but I put my name forth to be the Hogwarts Champion…" he said, ducking his head and looking at her sheepishly.

Tera stared at him for a minute before sighing, pulling him into a hug. "I'm not mad… I just don't want the people I care about to get hurt… just… just promise me you'll stay safe Ced."

Cedric hugged her back and laughed, knowing how much Tera wanted to shield her friends. "I promise not to get hurt without your permission."

Tera smiled and let Cedric go, picking Pixie up and setting her down on the floor. "Good, I'm going to go check on the boys, see if they still look like they're related to Dumbledore, then possibly head to the library for a bit. See ya Ced."

"See you Tera." Cedric said as he watched her head out the door, smiling and picking up her cat, which purred and curled up in his lap.

Tera hummed as she walked to the Hospital Wing, waving to the occasional person and smiling at others. When she finally made it to the Hospital Wing she cautiously opened the door and stuck her head in, glancing around she saw two identical heads of flaming red hair. Walking over to the bed they were sitting on Tera had to giggle, though they didn't have the long white beards anymore, they did have short, fiery goatees. Looks like the spell wasn't completely worn off yet.

"What?" they both asked with smiles on their faces as they twirled a bit of the goatee around their fingers and took on the thinker pose.

"Those look so weird on you!" she laughed, falling down on the bed behind her and holding her stomach.

The twins laughed long with her, agreeing that they did look rather odd with them. "Vat, ve cannot look like Karkaroff?" Fred asked, copying Karkaroff's expression from dinner the night before and causing Tera to dissolving into another fit of giggles.

"Stop! Stop it's too much!" she laughed, her sides starting to hurt. When she finally stopped laughing Tera pulled out a pack of Exploding Snaps, she played a few games with the boy while their beards slowly shrank until soon they only had a tiny bit of stubble on their chins. "Reverse hair growth looks so weird…"

"Feels weird too..." admitted George, scratching his chin as the last bit of stubble disappeared.

Tera glanced down at her watch and sighed, getting up and stretching. "It's time to head down to the feast boys. Need to show everyone that your pretty faces haven't been ruined." She said with a chuckle.

Fred and George both laughed at this, making faces at her and smiling at her giggles as they all made their way down to the feast. When they arrived they noted that the Goblet had been moved to right in front of Dumbledore's empty chair, and then quickly made their way to the table and sat down, hearing that Angelina Johnson had put forth her name to be a Champion.

"Hope its Angelina," said Fred as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down.

"So do I!" said Hermione breathlessly. "Well, we'll soon know!"

The Halloween feast seemed to take much longer than usual. Tera was rather unimpressed with the extravagantly prepared food, wishing to have something simple instead. Everyone in the Hall seemed impatient to see who would be selected as Champions. Craning their necks and fidgeting, wondering when Dumbledore would finally finish his meal. Even Fred and George were fidgeting, which of course caused Tera to lose food off her fork when they would accidentally bump her as she was trying to bring food to her lips.

At long last, the golden plates returned to their original spotless state; there was a sharp upswing in the level of noise within the Hall, which died away almost instantly as Dumbledore got to his feet. On either side of him, Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxime looked as tense and expectant as anyone. Ludo Bagman was beaming and winking at various students. Mr. Crouch, however, looked quite uninterested, almost bored.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," said Dumbledore. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions."

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it; at once, all the candles except those inside the carved pumpkins were extinguished, plunging them into a state of semidarkness.

The Goblet of Fire now shone more brightly than anything in the whole Hall, the sparkling bright, bluish-whiteness of the flames almost painful on the eyes. Everyone watched, waiting… A few people kept checking their watches…

"Any second," Lee Jordan whispered, to the right of George.

The flames inside the goblet turned suddenly red again. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it - the whole room gasped.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm's length, so that he could read it by the light of the flames, which had turned back to blue-white.

"The champion for Durmstrang," he read, in a strong, clear voice, "will be Viktor Krum."

"No surprises there!" yelled Ron as a storm of applause and cheering swept the Hall.

Tera watched as Viktor Krum rose from the Slytherin table, and made his way up towards Dumbledore; he turned right and walked along the staff table, disappearing through the door into the next chamber.

"Bravo, Viktor!" boomed Karkaroff, so loudly that everyone could hear him, even over all the applause. "Knew you had it in you!"

The clapping and chatting died down. Now everyone's attention was focused again on the goblet, which, seconds later, turned red once more. A second piece of parchment shot out of it, propelled by the flames.

"The champion for Beauxbatons," said Dumbledore, "is Fleur Delacour!"

One of the girls from Beauxbatons, the one with silvery blonde hair stood, shaking her hair out and making her way up to the front of the Hall. When Fleur Delacour too had vanished into the side chamber, silence fell again, but this time it was a silence so stiff with excitement you could almost taste it. The Hogwarts champion next…

And the Goblet of Fire turned red once more; sparks showered out of it; the tongue of flame shot high into the air, and from its tip Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment.

"The Hogwarts champion," he called, "is Cedric Diggory!"

Tera smiled and clapped, know how much this meant to Cedric and hoping for him to come out of it unscathed.

Every single other Hufflepuff had jumped to his or her feet, screaming and stamping, as Cedric made his way past them, grinning broadly, and headed off toward the chamber behind the teachers' table. Indeed, the applause for Cedric went on so long that it was some time before Dumbledore could make himself heard again.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. "Well, we now have our three champions. I am sure I can count upon all of you, including the remaining students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By cheering your champion on, you will contribute in a very real —"

But Dumbledore suddenly stopped speaking, and it was apparent to everybody what had distracted him.

The fire in the goblet had just turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.

Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reached out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during which Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone in the room stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out - "Harry Potter."

"No…" said Tera, her eyes wide as she looked over at Harry who seemed to have gone white as snow, his mouth hanging open in shock.

A buzzing, as though of angry bees, was starting to fill the Hall; some students were standing up to get a better look at Harry as he sat, frozen, in his seat. Up at the top table, Professor McGonagall had got to her feet and swept past Ludo Bagman and Professor Karkaroff to whisper urgently to Professor Dumbledore, who bent his ear toward her, frowning slightly.

"I didn't put my name in," Harry said blankly. "You know I didn't."

Both Ron and Hermione stared just as blankly back.

At the top table, Professor Dumbledore had straightened up, nodding to Professor McGonagall.

"Harry Potter!" he called again. "Harry! Up here, if you please!"

"Go on," Hermione whispered, giving Harry a slight push.

Tera watched as Harry made his way up to Dumbledore, dread pitted deep in her stomach. This wasn't right… no Dumbledore would set this right. Harry is far too young to be part of this tournament.

"How do you think he got his name in?" asked Fred as he stared wide eyed after Harry's retreating back.

"I don't think he did…" mumbled Tera; know something wasn't right about this.

That night Tera congratulated Cedric and went to bed early, hiding her head under her pillow to block out the noise of the party in her common room. After two hours she finally passed out from exhaustion, the pillow still held tight over her ears.

The next morning Tera woke up with a grumble, rubbing her eyes sleepily she stumbled around as she pulled on her clothes, petted Pixie who was sleeping at the foot of her bed and stumbled out of the room. Walking through the common room she tripped over a first year that had fallen asleep on the floor after last night's party. Shaking her head she yawned and headed to breakfast, grabbing herself some toast throwing a few pieces of bacon on it and eating it quickly, grabbing a sausage she decided to go up and give Thor a treat, knowing how much he enjoyed her visits.

Tera pulled her cloak tighter around herself as she made her way to the Owlery, nearly slipping once on a slippery step before she finally made it to the top and walked in. Whistling lightly Tera smiled as Thor flew down to her, landing on her shoulder and nuzzling her cheek with his be-feathered head. "Hello my little ray of sunshine. I brought you something." She said, holding up a chunk of sausage for him which he ate happily.

Moving over to the window Tera pulled out her wand, using a cleaning spell to clear the area of owl dropping and other messy things before sitting down, enjoying the peacefulness of being around animals, lightly petting Thor's head and smiling at his appreciative hoots.

She had to say she was a little surprised though when Hedwig landed in her lap and nipped her hand with a hoot. "Do you want attention too Hedwig?" she asked with a small laugh, stroking Hedwig's feathery cheek with a smile.

Tera looked up when Harry and Hermione entered the Owlery, both looking surprised to see her sitting there with two owls in her lap. "Hullo..." she said with a small smile, wondering what they were doing up here.

"Hi..." Harry said hesitantly, looking at the school owls with Hermione.

"What are you two doing up here?" Tera asked as Hedwig flew over to Harry and landed on his shoulder.

"I, uh, I'm sending a letter." He said, his eyes shifting around.

Hedwig hooted and held her leg out, ready to take his letter wherever it needed to go.

"I can't use you," Harry told her, looking around for the school owls. "I've got to use one of these."

Hedwig gave a very loud hoot and took off so suddenly that her talons cut into his shoulder. She kept her back to Harry, and when Harry reached out to stroke Hedwig, she clicked her beak furiously and soared up into the rafters out of reach.

"Why can't you use Hedwig Harry?" Tera asked, standing up and transferring Thor to her shoulder.

"Uh… I just… want to give her some rest, she's done two long distance deliveries for me and I think it would be good for her…" he mumbled, looking at a barn owl contemplatively.

"You know if you like, you can use Thor. He's a top notch flier and he's quick on deliveries." Tera offered, giggling as Thor puffed up with pride at her bit of praise.

"You sure? I can always just use a school owl." Harry said uncertainly.

"Harry if you're not going to use your own owl, who happens to be one of the best owls here, I'd much prefer you to use mine. Besides you can trust him to fight beak and talon to get your letter when it needs to be. Right Thor?" she said, smiling when Thor hooted the affirmative. "See?"

"Alright if you're sure…" Harry said, holding out his arm for Thor to hop onto, he walked over to the window, tried the letter to Thor's leg that had his leg cuff with his name on it, and then watched as Thor took off for some unknown destination. "Thanks for this Tera..."

"No problem, but you seriously need to work things out with Hedwig." Tera said, pointing up at the fuming owl. "Well I had best be going, see you later." She said before leaving Harry to work things out with his owl.

Over the next few weeks Tera spend time with the twins, occasionally talked to Harry and Hermione, and ever tried to help Hermione in her fruitless effort to get Ron and Harry talking again. She had a few small conversations with the students from Beauxbatons who prefer to speak in their native tongue, so thankful that her mother had her take French lesson when she was younger.

As the days grew closer and closer to the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament Tera watch Cedric grow a bit nervous, and noticed that Harry looked as though he was going to start pulling his hair out. Walking down an empty corridor on the day before the task she heard Harry in one to the classrooms practicing the Summoning Charm; she looked in and saw that he was having issues with it. "I wonder what he's practicing that for…" she mumbled, before heading out onto the grounds to spend some time with the boys, sitting down on the ground and curling her feet underneath herself and enjoying their time together.

The next day was the day everyone had been waiting for, all around her students were whispering excitedly about the Task the Champions would face, and what it might be. Classes were scheduled to end at midday so that all students could make it down to the arena. Tera waved to Harry and McGonagall took him to go await his task, noting that he look as if he might pass out.

Soon it was time for everyone to down to the arena, excitement causing everyone to push and shove as they wanted to get the best seats possible. Tera got pushed by someone twice her size and ended up stumbling back into someone's chest, their hands resting on her hip and helping to steady her.

Turning around with a blush she started to apologize and stopped her eyes wide. "What the- Malfoy?" she asked, shocked to see who had stopped her from falling.

"Howell, there is no need to stumble all over yourself around me." Malfoy said with a chuckle, his silvery eyes glinting with something Tera couldn't identify.

"Thanks for catching me, but seriously Malfoy, you need to get a reality check and get over yourself." Tera said, turning and walking away, trying to find the twin in the masses of students making their way towards the arena. When she finally found them she wedged herself in between them and looped her arm through theirs, a smile on her face. "Hello handsomes, care to show a lady to her seat?"

"But of course" they said, leading Tera along with them to their seats, smiling and bowing as she took her seat with a giggle.

About ten minutes later the tournament officially began, Cedric went first, and seemed to have a bit of trouble with his dragon, getting singed in the process of trying to retrieve his egg. Next up was Fleur who though very skilled nearly got knocked into a wall by her dragons tail, just barely ducking in time and retrieving her own egg, the crowd, mostly males cheering very loudly for her.

Next was Krum, who seemed to favor power over stealth, lashing out at his dragon and charging the nest, soon gathering up his golden egg and ignoring the fangirls who scream his name and cheered for him more loudly then the boys had for Fleur. He slowly slouched off the field, leaving it open for Harry who was up next.

When Harry finally came out he was by far the smallest challenger, completely dwarfed by the large black dragon that was roaring and leaving great gouges in the ground. Watching Harry dodge it's horrible tail, Tera had to hide her face in Fred shoulder, worried Harry would end up getting hit. "Tell me when it's over" she whimpered, afraid for Harry.

Fred held her close, watching Harry closely to see what he would do, praying he would come out of this alright. To his utter amazement Harry's prized Firebolt zoomed to his side, all the way from his dormitory. He watched as Harry mounted his broom and kicked off, his face relaxing and taking on the look he normally wore during Quidditch matches. "That's the way Harry! No one can beat you on your broom!" Fred yelled, causing Tera to glance up, her eyes wide. "So that's what he was practicing for…" she mumbled.

He dived. The Horntail's head followed him; and he pulled out of the dive just in time; a jet of fire had been released exactly where he would have been had he not swerved away. Tera had hidden her face again, not wanting to watch Harry nearly get fried by the vicious Horntail.

"Great Scott, he can fly!" yelled Bagman as the crowd shrieked and gasped. "Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?"

Harry soared higher in a circle; the Horntail was still following his progress; its head revolving on its long neck - if he kept this up, it would be nicely dizzy – but better not push it too long, or it would be breathing fire again –

Harry plummeted just as the Horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less lucky - he missed the flames, but the tail came whipping up to meet him instead, and as he swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, ripping his robes —

The entire crowd groaned, Fred himself yelled at Harry to be more careful, which in any other situation would have cause Tera to laugh if things weren't so serious.

By the next time that Tera looked up the crowd was screaming and applauding louder than the Irish supporter had at the end of the World Cup. Harry was zooming over them, golden egg tucked securely under his arm.

"Look at that!" Bagman was yelling. "Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!"

The next few hours seemed to be a blur but somehow Tera ended up in the Hufflepuff common room, a party of magnitude of which hadn't been seen since Hufflepuff beat Gryffindor the year before was in full swing, Cedric smiling at people continuously congratulated him and slapped him on the back. Soon someone held out the Golden Egg to Cedric, demanding him to open it, which caused everyone to cheer their assent to the idea.

Cedric smiled, ever the nice guy he picked up the egg and did as requested, feeling along the eggs seam and pulling it open, revealing it to be empty- barely a second after coming to this realization there was an ear splitting, screeching wail. Tera fell to her knees holding her ears, screaming for Cedric to close it. Her hearing being better than anyone else in the room it affected her worst; bring tears to her eyes and causing her a near debilitating headache.

Cedric quickly handed the egg to another Hufflepuff and bent to check on Tera, worry flashing in his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I… I'll be fine…" she said, shaking her head and trying to stop the ringing in her ears. "High pitched noises…. They just really bother my ears is all…" she mumbled, taking his offered hand and standing up. "I'm… I'm going to go lay down…" she said, holding her head and making her way to her dormitory.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay so I had someone point out to me that the beginning of chapter for was very dry and moved along way to quickly, after thinking about it I had to totally agree. She made some very valid points and I went back and did some big edits. See when I first wrote it I didn't want to make Angelina seem all bitchy, and had no idea how to make her and Tera interact, plus I didn't think I needed to write Neville asking Tera, but now that it's written out I like the updated version much better. This major edit wouldn't have been possible without the helpful advice of none other than ruler of dragons! She, while very nice about it, basically smacked me with the fact that I rushed into the Yule Ball without actually giving the substance I have normally prided myself on. Well my dear I hope this lives up to snuff, it was all thank to you that I got off my bum and made things work better. I had it ready on Jan 14th but my internet went down... So I'm posting it now in hopes it make ya'll very happy. I got it to 25 pages! Woot! Now if only that dream I had could come true, you know… the one involving Moody doing a an Irish jig with the 'Amazing Bouncing Ferret' and Harry had a punch bowl on his head…. Don't ask me how that happened cause I haven't the foggiest. Love for ElephantShoes who loves my bits of fluff and thanks to my guest reviewer Ali, you may not say much, but it still makes me smile that you take the time to review. All of you make me feel like my writing is actually good, you make it enjoyable and make me feel that people actually appreciate it. Thank you so much! I hope you all enjoy the chapter (edit), let me know what you think in a review (or PM) and if you have anything you'd like to know just drop me a PM. Show your love for Tera and I thank you for reading! :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; if I did there would have been a lot less deaths, and more happy endings. I do however own this story and my Characters Tera, her family and her pets. There are some excerpts from the book in this chapter, but I tried to make them from Tera's point of view and may have changed very tiny details in the story itself. No hating, just read and enjoy the Tera moments in their random abundance. I hope you all enjoy, and leave me a review. Much love to you, now enjoy the story.**

**Chapter Four**

**With Winter Comes Snow and Yuletide Dances**

Lessons went on in their typical manner, though the closer it got to the holidays the more lax some teachers became, others piled it on even harder than before. After the announcement of the Yule Ball the whole school seemed to explode into nervousness, excitement and a bit of panic.

Tera herself sent home Thor with a letter asking her grandmother to send her something to wear, only to receive a reply back that it had already been packed. Tera then of course remembered the package Rosella had told her to open when the time was right. "Nana I really hope it's not something horrible." She mumbled, deciding not to open it until the day of so she would be surprised.

Over the next few days Tera watched people jump with joy, giggle and blush or sometimes turn into the walking dead with their heads hung low. Everyone was finding, or at least trying to find dates to the ball. Tera herself had been asked by a few different guys, all of whom she had declined.

There had been Justin Finch-Fletchley who was a Hufflepuff in her year, he had asked her in the middle of the crowded Hufflepuff common room, she had sheepishly replied that she would prefer to go with someone she knew better, having had very few conversations with him and finding him to be a bit boring.

Following him had been a second year Gryffindor who was friends with her brother, a young man by the name of Arnie if she wasn't mistaken. He had walked up to her, offered her an adorable little origami rose and asked her. She hadn't even gotten the chance to politely decline his offer before Callum had come storming up and told poor little Arnie off for asking his sister, causing the boy to bow in apology and run out of the Great Hall, tripping over his robes in his embarrassment.

Tera tried to keep her head low after that, not wanting to end up hurting anyone's feelings. The next week was spent sneaking to her classes, avoiding hanging around after class and moving quickly. She spent a lot of time with Hermione, working on notes for Arithmancy and sometimes Potions, which was one of Tera's iffy classes.

On one such night she was sitting with Hermione going over their notes for Potions, adding information here and there to make their notes more detailed, a spare piece of paper at the ready in case they needed to rewrite them. Ron was busy building a card castle out of his Exploding Snap pack - a much more interesting pastime than with Muggle cards, because of the chance that the whole thing would blow up at any second. He was also complaining about how Snape was springing a test on them on the last day, possibly poisoning at least one of them.

"Mmm… you're not exactly straining yourself, though, are you?" said Hermione, looking at him over the top of her Potions notes.

"It's Christmas, Hermione," said Harry lazily; he was rereading Flying with the Cannons for the tenth time in an armchair near the fire.

Hermione looked severely over at him too. "I'd have thought you'd be doing something constructive, Harry, even if you don't want to learn your antidotes!"

"Like what?" Harry said as he watched Joey Jenkins of the Cannons belt a Bludger toward a Ballycastle Bats Chaser.

"That egg!" Hermione hissed.

"Come on, Hermione, I've got till February the twenty-fourth," Harry said.

"But it might take weeks to work it out!" said Hermione. "You're going to look a real idiot if everyone else knows what the next task is and you don't!"

"Honestly Harry, Cedric works on it at least twice a day, I haven't seen you work on it at all." said Tera, looking up at him with a frown.

"Leave him alone you two, he's earned a bit of a break," said Ron, and he placed the last two cards on top of the castle and the whole lot blew up, singeing his eyebrows.

"Nice look Ron… go well with your dress robes, that will."

It was Fred and George. They sat down at the table with Harry, Ron, Tera, and Hermione as Ron felt how much damage had been done.

"Ron, can we borrow Pigwidgeon?" George asked.

"No, he's off delivering a letter," said Ron. "Why?"

"Because George wants to invite him to the ball," said Fred sarcastically, causing Tera to smirk and roll her eyes.

"Because we want to send a letter, you stupid great prat," said George.

"You can borrow Thor if you like. He will be ecstatic to leave the castle and stretch his wings for a bit." offered Tera without looking up from her notes.

"Who d'you two keep writing to, eh?" said Ron.

"Nose out, Ron, or I'll burn that for you too," said Fred, waving his wand threateningly. "So… you lot got dates for the ball yet?"

"Had some offers, none that I'd want to go with though." said Tera with a shrug, chancing a small glance at Fred who had turned a curious eye to his younger brother. She let out an inaudible sigh and returned to her notes..

"Nope," said Ron in answer to the question.

"Well, you'd better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone," said Fred with a chuckle.

"Who're you going with, then?" said Ron.

"Angelina," said Fred promptly, without a trace of embarrassment.

Tera's quill snapped, ink splashing across the page as she looked up in shock, hoping she hadn't heard right.

"What?" said Ron, taken aback. "You've already asked her?"

"Good point," said Fred. He turned his head and called across the common room, "Oy! Angelina!"

Angelina, who had been chatting with Alicia Spinnet near the fire, looked over at him. "What?" she called back.

"Want to come to the ball with me?"

Angelina gave Fred an appraising sort of look.

_Please say no, please say no, PLEASE SAY NO! _thought Tera pleadingly. If Fred went with Angelina she didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell and might as well give up hope.

"All right, then," she said, and she turned back to Alicia and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.

Tera looked crestfallen, just long enough for Hermione and George to see it before she pulled herself together, determined not to let anyone see the hurt she felt.

"There you go," said Fred to Harry and Ron, "piece of cake." He got to his feet, yawning, and said, "We'd better go give this letter to Thor then, George, Tera, come on…"

Nodding numbly Tera gathered up her things, cleaning the ink spill off her notes before stuffing them in her bag and went with them. When they reached the Owlery Tera looked for Thor calling him down from his place next to Hedwig with a whistle. "Okay sweetling, I need you to deliver a letter for Fred and George, think you can do that for me?" she asked him sweetly, smiling when he nuzzled her and hooted, glad for his little bit of affection.

Fred held his arm out to Thor and took him over to the window, conversing with him in a low voice while tying the letter to his leg.

"Hey Tera, come here." said George, leading her over to the entrance and away from his twin. "Are you okay?" he asked with concern, bending to look her in the eye.

"Why wouldn't I be Georgie?" she asked with a smile, though sighing when he gave her the look that said 'I know you're lying'. "Okay fine, I'm a bit hurt that Fred is going with Angelina. I'm no competition for her and feel like a little kid trying so hard to be an adult. I'm out of my league here and don't know what to do…" she mumbled, hugging her arms around herself and giving him a lost look.

"Hey cheer up, you always have me. Besides you shouldn't compare yourself to anyone Tera, you are a fantastic girl. My brother is a bit dense at times, I admit, but he does care about you. He just… he doesn't know how to show it very well other than to be there for you as a friend." said George, ever the voice of reason.

"Georgie… I like him more than a friend should…" she mumbled, a bright blush on her cheeks.

"I know. Here how about this. Go to the ball with me, just as friends mind you. We'll dance, eat, enjoy ourselves and I'll be there right beside you the whole time. Think of me as moral support as well as arm candy." George offered, a kind smile on his face, though at the last part he waggled his eyebrows playfully..

Tera giggled, the eyebrow thing always made her smile. "Thank you Georgie… I'd like that very much." Tera said, hugging him tightly.

"What did I miss?" asked Fred as he came over to them with a confused smile, Thor just a dot that was quickly fading away on the horizon.

"Nothing much, other then I just got myself a pretty little date to the dance." said George with a smile, looking down at Tera and winking playfully.

Tera blushed and smiled up at him, completely missing the jealous look Fred just gave his twin.

"Congratulations." said Fred through grit teeth.

The next few days went without a hitch, Tera took notes in class, spend time with Pixie- having her chase some floating string and giggling at her silliness- and she even got to spend some time with her boys. But on one of the last days of term she ran into Neville. Wondering what was up she stopped him, having him sit down with her during break.

"Hey Neville, what's the matter?" she asked kindly, wondering what had him dragging his feet more than normal. "Is Malfoy being a git again?"

"No, he's actually been leaving me alone as of late." mumbled Neville.

"Well then what is it?" she asked, slightly concerned. "Snape?"

"No, no. I- I asked Hermione to go to the ball with me. She's always been so nice so I thought- I thought why not? What's the worst that can happen? - She said no..." he said, shaking his head and sighing somewhat dejectedly.

Tera patted his arm sympathetically, hating to see him this way. "I'm sure you'll find someone who would be willing to do with you Neville. You're a really nice, great guy and some lucky girl will probably jump at the chance to go with you." She said kindly.

Neville blinked, staring at her for a moment before a cute- yet awkward smile made its way onto his face. "Tera… would you go to the ball with me?" he asked, his voice full of hope.

Tera's eyes widened, her heart went out to Neville, it really did, and it hurt her to have to say no. "Neville… I'm- I'm already going with George… Honestly if you would have asked me sooner I might have said yes... I'm so sorry…" she mumbled, feeling worse when his face sank again.

"Don't worry about it… I'm used to rejection…" he said, getting up to leave.

"Neville…. Try asking Ginny. I'm sure she'd love to go, most of the younger girls would kill to go to the ball, so your chances are really high on getting a yes if you ask." Tera offered, praying that Ginny would say yes.

Neville thought about it for a minute before nodding, a slight smile on his face. "Thanks Tera."

"You are very welcome Neville, I hope you find a date." She said with a sweet smile.

When Christmas finally arrive Tera woke up to her cat pawing at her nose, slowly sitting up she yawned and hugged Pixie, kissing the top of her fuzzy head. Going through her present she smiled. She had gotten a stuffed black toy cat from Harry, some new muggle romance books from Hermione, and a bag of candy from Ron.

She had even gotten a sweater from Mrs. Weasley; it was off the shoulder periwinkle blue with silvery white snowflakes patterned along the neck line and the sweater went down past her hips, she decided she was going to enjoy wearing it today.

From her mother she received an adorable pair of royal blue close toed heels with little silver bows on the front. Her brother had given her a box of caramels of her favorite brand. And last but not least was the present from her grandmother, she picked up the card attached to the gift and smiled; on the front was a picture of her grandmother sitting serenely by the fire, Christmas tree glowing cheerily to her right as she knit a pair of mittens. Opening the card she was surprised by what she read.

_My darling granddaughter,_

_At the beginning of the school year I packed you a dress I thought would look lovely on you, but after you left I realized I didn't send you anything to go with it. So I am sending these to you in hopes that you'll be able to wear them with your dress. I hope you enjoy them, they are family heirlooms and I beg you to not lose them. No matter how you may feel from day to day, always remember my darling, you are beautiful. Inside and out._

_All my love _

Setting the note aside with a loving smile Tera slowly opened the box, gasping at what she saw. Inside was a beautiful and intricately designed jewelry set made of diamonds and sapphires. They looked as though they were made of ice crystals and twinkled like small stars. Seeing these Tera had to wonder what her dress would look like. She would find out soon enough though, for the dance was tonight.

She tucked away her presents and got up, stretching and sighing when her back popped. "Let's see… what am I going to wear today…" she mumbled to herself, finally settling on a pair of tight faded blue jeans, a white tank top under the sweater Mrs. Weasley had made her and a pair of really warm boots her mother had bought her specifically with winter in mind. After tossing her hair up into a loose bun and putting in her silver bell earrings, Tera kissed Pixie's furry head again and headed downstairs for breakfast.

When she got down to the Great Hall she sat between Fred and Hermione, grabbing toast and some sausages as well as a large glass of orange juice she sat and had her breakfast, a content smile on her face. She tried conversing with Hermione, though she ended up ignoring her twentieth attempt at getting her to join S.P.E.W. After breakfast was done they all headed outside, Tera had the twins help her make a huge snowman nearly as tall as Hagrid.

Once that was done Tera giggled and ducked, an all-out snowball war had started. She pegged people left and right but it was when she hit Fred in the back of the head and caused him to land in a snow bank, that she nearly fell over laughing. She laughed like mad as she tried to run and hide behind a tree but Fred caught up with her and they both fell into the snow, Tera landing on her back with a grunt and Fred landing on top of her.

Opening her eyes Tera found herself looking up into laughing chocolate brown eyes, their lips just millimeters apart, if either one of them would move forward just a smidge, they would be sharing a kiss. Knowing this, a blush dusted across Tera's face, her breath hitching, wondering what Fred would do. To her slight disappointment though Fred, blushing brightly pushed himself up and offered her his hand, helping her to her feet.

"Sorry about that love." He muttered, looking down at his feet and quickly taking his hand back.

Tera dusted herself off, her eyes having a slightly disappointed look to them though she played it off with a laugh. "It's fine. No harm, no foul." The rest of the snowball fight Tera just keep thinking about that almost kiss, wishing for once that they could share a kiss that wasn't an accident, or a way to get out from under enchanted mistletoe.

When five o'clock rolled around Tera quickly made her way inside, waving to Hermione as she headed up to Gryffindor tower, giving her a reassuring thumbs up. Tera like Hermione wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to possibly mess her hair of makeup up and still have the time to be able to fix them. She entered her dormitory and with a sigh walked over to her trunk, opening it and pulling out the package her grandmother had put in there just a few months before. Slowly she pulled away the brown paper and her eyes nearly fell out of her head. "Oh nana…"

Tera walked into the Entrance Hall nervously, her hair pulled back slightly with small crystal like flowers strewn though it, hair was falling around her face in an array of curls as well as slightly down the back of her neck. She had on light make up, having borrowed one of the older girl's magazine that had makeup tips on how to achieve simple beauty, 'Less is more' it had raved.

She was wearing the locket Fred had given her for Christmas of her first year at Hogwarts on a long chain so it rested just an inch above her bust. The diamond and sapphire necklace her grandmother sent her glinting elegantly against her neck, the earrings hanging from her ears amongst the curls that framed her face, and the matching bracelet wrapped around her delicate wrist.

Her dress was a royal blue off the shoulder satin gown with sweetheart neck line ruching and a crystal beaded bodice that flowed down into the skirt. When she would move the light would dance off the crystal beads of her dress beautifully, making her feel as unique and lovely as a snowflake.

Tera felt a pair of eyes staring at her and glanced around, a small look of annoyance making its way onto her face when she noticed Malfoy appraising her like a horse he might wish to purchase. Glaring she growled under her breath and tried to move out of his sights, keeping her eyes open for her date, when she finally spotted him she frowned, standing next to him was his brother and his brother's date, both of whom seemed to be having a grand time. "This was a bad idea... I should just turn around and go back to my common room..." when she started to turn though she heard him call out to her.

"Ter, there you are! Come on over here and say hello to everyone!" said George as he walked over and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Knowing how nervous she was about this. "Come on, everything will be fine, I promise." he whispered to her as they walked towards Fred and Angelina.

When they finally stopped Tera forced a smile onto her face and tried to act normal. "Hello Fred... I like your dress Angelina." she said, complimenting the plum colored dress that hugged all of Angelina's curves well and made her skin glow. Tera looked at her and how mature she was, and felt like a little girl trying to get the adults attention, her already down spirits sinking a bit lower.

"Thank you, I love yours as well, it's so very pretty and you look very nice in it." said Angelina in return, frowning a bit at how this little girl, who was three years her junior, was showing her up without even trying. Turning back to Fred she tried to continue their conversation, completely annoyed when Fred ignored her.

Tera, though she didn't realize it looked amazing in her dress, it was hugging her form in all the right ways. Showing off her soft, feminine curves and accentuating her ample bust, the dress cascaded beautifully around her, falling from the curve of her hips to the floor and looking simply stunning.

Fred turned from the conversation he had been having with Angelina and just stared at Tera with wide eye, completely mesmerized. This was Tera? The girl he had known for the past few years and who had a spot in his heart that still confused him? She looked... amazing. He just couldn't believe he had never noticed how much she had grown up over these last couple years. She was no longer that adorable little girl he met at King Cross station who blushed and stuttered out a hello, she was now a beautiful young woman who held herself with an air of something more. She was something else entirely. "H-hi Tera..." he muttered, hating how he was suddenly tongue tied.

Tera looked up when she heard her name and smiled tenderly at Fred, her eyes trying to convey to him everything she couldn't say, everything she was too afraid to tell him. She stared back into his warm and caring eyes and felt herself start falling apart. Feeling Angelina's glare she tore her gaze away from him and looked towards the doors of the Great Hall as they opened, taking George's hand and avoiding Fred's eyes as they all moved to head inside, worried she'd break down if she didn't_**. **__ Lord give me strength…_

The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people. Moving swiftly they claimed their table, sitting down and allowing Tera to try and get her nerves under control. Not knowing how she was going to do that when Fred and Angelina sat down to her right, Angelina taking the seat next to her before Fred had the chance to sit there.

George smiled at Tera, patting her knee lightly and whispering into her ear so as not to be heard by his twin. "Stop stressing and just enjoy yourself Ter. Tonight is about having fun and 'letting your hair down'." He said, quoting Professor McGonagall.

Tera smiled, knowing that George was right. Sighing she tried to let all her stress go, turning and looking at the menu near their plates. Picking it up Tera thought about her choices for a minute before clearly saying to her plate "Chicken fettuccini alfredo!" smiling as one of her favorite dishes appeared on her plate. Maybe tonight wouldn't be too bad for her.

She tried to make idle chit-chat during dinner, but when the topic turned to Quidditch she respectfully bowed out, only slightly annoyed at the condescending look Angelina seemed to have as she talked heatedly with the boys about the game they all played. So what if she couldn't talk Quidditch with the boys? She was still their friend and they had loads of other things they talked about.

When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.

The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. They picked up their instruments, the lanterns on all the tables had gone out, and the champions and their partners were standing up.

The Weird Sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune, and the champions started dancing. Tera smiled when George bowed playfully, holding out his hand. "Care to dance beautiful?" he asked.

Tera smiled, holding out her hand and allowing him to sweep her onto the dance floor. A small gleeful laugh escaped her as George spun her around the floor, a devilish smile on his face. Glancing around her Tera noticed Hermione dancing with Krum, Harry and Ron had found dates with the Patil twins, and there was Fred, dancing across the floor with Angelina, who sent Tera a look that confused her, almost as if she was telling Tera to back off her date.

When the song ended Tera was about to sit down but George swept her up into another dance, smiling and chuckling at her surprised face. While she was focusing on keeping up with George and his large strides on the dance floor, George was in fact paying attention to his brother, who if he wasn't mistaken was sending small jealous glances his way, much to Angelina's annoyance. After another three dances Tera finally sat down, gratefully accepting the butter beer George offered her a few minutes later.

Watching everyone around her Tera noticed Hermione stomping away from Harry and Ron, the latter having an annoyed yet satisfied look on his face. "Ron's being a jealous git." She said, motioning to what had just happened.

"Yeah, our baby brother can be a bit dense at times. Also hates to admit when he's wrong." George said nonchalantly, sipping his drink.

"That sounds familiar." She said with a small laugh, all the men in her life seemed to be that way.

George chuckled, his eyes looking over at his twin who was signaling something to him. "Excuse me for a minute Tera; I have to go see a man about a leprechaun." He said, following his brother and making a beeline for Ludo Bagman, seeming to get into a small argument before Bagman gave them the slip and went to talk to Harry.

While the twins conversed amongst themselves Tera was asked to dance by one of the boys from Beauxbatons, they seemed to be scooping up all the unattended young women at the dance, popping up out of nowhere. With a small smile she accepted, taking a spin around the dance floor and making idle chit-chat, rolling her eyes when her partner seemed surprised she could speak French nearly as well as he could.

Bowing at the end of the song Tera was even more surprised when she was pulled into the next dance, her eyes wide when she realized who she was dancing with. "What the hell Malfoy?" she asked, her eyes flashing with confusion as she glared at him.

"What, you're going to deny me a dance in front of all these people?" he asked, his perfectly white teeth flashing into the closest thing she had ever seen to a smile on Malfoy's face, though it still could be considered a condescending sneer.

"Sod off Malfoy, now what are you up to?" she growled, her nails digging into his skin slightly, warning him to keep his hands where they belong as they had started to wander.

"Jeeze Howell, it's only a dance. Don't get your knickers in a twist." He said while rolling his eyes, a sigh of exasperation escaping him as he twirled her around the floor.

"You had better not try anything Malfoy; otherwise I will make you wish your mother had sent you to Durmstrang." Tera said, her eyes narrowed as she glared into Malfoy's smirking face. Once the dance was done she stomped away from him as quickly as she could, growling at George when she finally found him. "How could you leave me alone with that… that ferret!" she growled, her hands on her hips as she glared in a way that greatly resembled Mrs. Weasley when she was reprimanding her two most mischievous children.

"Sorry Ter… had something we needed to take care of." George said apologetically.

Tera just huffed and blew a stray wisp of hair out of her face, grumbling under her breath about ferrets and being abandoned.

George just rolled his eyes at how dramatic she was being, and then an idea came to him. Getting up he offered his hand to Angelina, looking at his brother with a sly smile. "You don't mind if I borrow your date for a dance, do you Fred?"

Fred opened his mouth to say something but Angelina beat him to it. "I mind, I'm here with Fred. Why don't you go dance with your little Hufflepuff, you two seemed quite comfy earlier." Angelina said with a roll of her eyes before smiling at Fred and asking him to dance.

Fred looked at Angelina, then looked at his brother, his mind made up. "No I think it would be good for us to dance with other people, besides, George here is a way better dancer then me any day." He said with a shrug, sipping his butter beer.

Angelina growled but held her head high, dragging George out onto the dance floor, but not before narrowing her eyes at Tera. "Whatever."

Fred sighed and shook his head; women could be such a hassle. He watched his brother and Angelina dance, noting that George had gotten Angelina to lighten up a bit so she was actually starting to enjoy herself, though she still seemed to be throwing small glares at Tera.

Looking to his right he noticed how awkward Tera looked as she sat down, her hand absentmindedly fiddling with the locket he had given to her almost three years ago. Making up his mind he stood up and offered her his hand. "Care to dance love?" he asked, a charming smile on his face.

Tera blushed lightly, taking his offered hand with a shy smile. Once they reached the dance floor the song slowed down, becoming more intimate then the previous songs, obviously one for the romantic couples in the room. Tera was about to say something but when she looked up into Fred's eyes she saw something that gave her pause. Was he…. was he really looking at her, like she was the only other person in the world?

Fred smiled sweetly at her, lifting her arms up so they wrapped around his neck, his hands coming to rest on her hips. As they started dancing, Tera became more relaxed, her head slowly found itself resting against Fred's chest, his heart calming her frazzled nerves and allowing her to melt into his embrace. They danced around the room, the world fading around them until they were the only two people on the dance floor.

Off over at their table George had sat back down and was smiling at the scene before him, glad his little plan was working so well. Angelina, having seen how Fred and Tera looked at each other just moments before finally resolved herself to having lost her date to the younger girl, instead turning her attention to the other twin who was sitting at the table with her.

The song slowly faded away, though Tera and Fred still held onto one another, not noticing as the song switched to a faster more upbeat one. Soon though they moved away from each other, their eyes locking as they seemed to gravitate towards each other, neither knowing what would happen next. And that is when Neville accidentally bumped into Tera, causing her forehead to bash against Fred's nose. Blushing profusely, Tera apologized and gathered up her skirts, quickly making her getaway out into the Entrance Hall.

The front doors stood open, and the fluttering fairy lights in the rose garden winked and twinkled as she went down the front steps, where she found herself surrounded by bushes; winding, ornamental paths; and large stone statues. Tera could hear splashing water, which sounded like a fountain. Here and there, people were sitting on carved benches.

Tera made her way along the path, the air fragrant with the smell of roses, smiling lightly and waving when Harry and Ron walked past her on their way back to the castle. When she heard the light splashing of a fountain she looked around, noting that it was behind a statue of a reindeer. Sitting down on the edge of the fountain Tera looked down at the water, dipping her finger in and causing ripples to blur her reflection.

"What in the world is happening?" she asked her blurry reflection, thinking about how much Fred affected her and hoping she wouldn't end up making a fool of herself in front of him.

Fairies were lightly fluttering here and there, casting a sort of serene light on the lovely rose bushes, illuminating the perfectly white roses. Reaching out Tera plucked a rose from the bush, bringing it up to her nose she sniffed it delicately, enjoying the light floral smell it gave off. With a sigh she brought it down into her lap and looked up towards the stars, smiling lightly when she saw a shooting star.

Closing her eyes she made a silent wish, her face still tilted towards the heavens when she suddenly felt movement to her left, turning her head she noticed Fred had sat down next to her. "Hullo…" she said shyly, a light blush flashing across her cheeks.

"Hey Tera, are you okay? You rushed out pretty quick." said Fred, his eyes full of concern as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

When his hand made contact with the bare skin of her shoulder Tera shuddered lightly, looking down at the rose in her lap, her eyes wide. Why was he affecting her like this now? "I- I just needed some fresh air. Too much dancing.." she mumbled, looking at him from the corner of her eye as she fiddled with the rose in her lap. "I'm sorry about your nose…"

"Don't worry about it, didn't even hurt." Fred noticed her shiver and took it as her being cold. Shrugging off his outer robes he draped them around her shoulders, pulling her curls out from under the collar. "Here, it's cold out. You need to cover up so you don't get sick." He said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and rubbing her upper arm to help warm her up.

The blush on Tera's face amplified as Fred pulled her closer, tucking her against himself to keep her warm. "Th-thanks…" she mumbled, still fiddling with the rose in her lap. "Fr-Freddie?"

"Hmmm?" Fred looked down at Tera, his eyes holding a fond look as he tilted his head in question.

"I- I wanted to give you your Christmas.." She mumbled, pulling out her want she murmured _"Accio Present"_ and a silver box with a blue ribbon flew to them, landing in Tera's lap. She picked it up and held it out to him, a shy smile on her face. "Happy Christmas Freddie."

Fred looked down at her in surprise, slowly taking the present from her, he hadn't expected to get a present and felt bad that he didn't have anything for her. "Thanks love…" he mumbled, opening it up he saw something that made him smile lightly; she had gone with handmade gifts this year. There was a drawing of him and his brother when they had their beards, laughing and looking a lot like twin Dumbledore's, and underneath that was a scarf. The scarf was in Gryffindor colors and his name, as well as his Quidditch number were hand stitched on it in gold thread at the end of the scarf, standing out brilliantly against the crimson. "Tera… this is great. I love it." He said, smiling from ear to ear as he set the box down next to him.

"I'm glad you like it." Tera said with a sweet smile, leaving out that it took her three tries before she got it right and it wasn't lumpy. Standing up she looked towards the castle, knowing that the ball was probably pretty close to being over. "We should probably head inside; the ball will be over soon." She mumbled, looking over at Fred as he got to his feet, his height dwarfing her considerably.

Fred looked down at the girl he had been friends with for the past few years, finally seeing all the changes she had gone through and the woman she had become, though he still wasn't sure about his feelings about her, he was sure of one thing. Loosing Tera would kill him, and he would do anything to keep her with him. Taking a step closer he looked down into her innocent green eyes, his hand coming up to rest on her cheek. "I wish I had a present to give you in return love… I really wish that I did." he mumbled.

Tera stared up at Fred with wide eyes, her heart fluttering like a hummingbird as she wondered what would happen. "Fred…" she mumbled, unable to finish her sentence.

Fred dipped his head slowly, never breaking eye contact as he brought his lips to hers in a sweet kiss, his arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her closer. The hand that had been resting on her cheek slipped into her soft curls, tilting her head and allowing Fred to deepen the kiss, though still keeping it quite innocent. Finally pulling back Fred smiled down at the stunned girl looking up at him in a slight daze. "Happy Christmas Tera…" he mumbled, his eyes tender as he leaned in again.

Tera, through her daze barely heard the footsteps before a loud cough came from behind them. Blushing profusely as she and Fred jumped away from each other; Tera turned and looked into the stern face of none other than Professor McGonagall.

"Get back inside you two, lest I take points from both Hufflepuff as well as Gryffindor." Professor McGonagall said, though her voice wasn't as hard as Tera expected it to be. Looking closer Tera could see past her frown and see that her eyes had a soft sort of fondness to them, though they also were conveying that she wanted them to follow the rules.

Tera nodded, not even realizing she was still holding the rose she had picked earlier she picked up her skirts and quickly headed back for the castle, her face still a rosy pink from the kiss with Fred. When she reached the Entrance Hall she turned, her blush flaring back up as she looked up into Fred's eyes, memories of the kiss they shared just moments before flashing across her mind. "Fred I-" she started.

"Don't worry about it; I'll see you at breakfast love." Fred said, kissing her on the forehead then heading to find his brother.

Tera stared after him in confusion; first he kisses her then he makes a quick getaway before she can even say anything about it? Tera sighed, walking into the Great Hall just long enough to grab a few butter beers and then head to her room, changing into her jammies and drowning her confusion in butter beer. "Fred Weasley… you are the most confusing man I know." She grumbled, downing the last of her drink and curling up on her side, gently touching her lips, her eyes misting up slightly. "Why does all of this have to be so confusing?"

Sitting up after a few minutes of silent pondering Tera grabbed her sketch book, opening it to a blank page she allowed her hands to take over. When she looked at the finished product she smiled lightly, feeling like an outsider looking in on a private moment. On the paper was she and Fred's kiss, a few fairies dancing around them and the rose bushes making it seem more romantic.

Tearing the picture out of her sketch book she got up and started digging through her trunk. Pulling out a large book she opened it and turned it to the appropriate page, placing the picture there and then adding the white rose as a bookmark.

The book was filed with pictures, either from a camera or drawn by Tera, of her favorite Hogwarts memories. There were pictures of Tera first meeting the twins, her mum had taken that one without her even knowing, of her and the boys under their tree, Tera loosing at poker, her kiss with Fred last Christmas (drawn by Tera) and now her most resent and treasured memory.

"I don't know how you felt about it…. But… that is a memory I'm going to cherish…" she mumbled, looking at a picture of Fred smiling playfully at the camera one time that the twins had been over during the summer.

Putting the book away Tera sighed and climbed into bed, hugging the stuffed toy cat Harry had given her for Christmas she quickly fell asleep, her cat Pixie hopping onto the bed and curling up against the small of her back.

When Tera got up on Boxing Day, things seemed to have gone through a time warp between her and Fred, as if last night had never even happened. Fred was back to his normal self, still caring, but treating her like his best mate and not like someone he had shared a tender kiss with. George on the other hand was being very supportive, having talked about it with Tera while they waited for Fred outside the lavatory.

When Tera talked with Hermione about it she wasn't much help, having her own issues going on with Ron though they were at the point of pretending things between them were good too. "Mione, why don't you just tell Ron how you feel? Cause if you're waiting for him to realize it on his own, you're going to be waiting a long time sweetie. He can be a bit dense at times; you know that better than anyone." Tera said, her eyes full of sympathy for her best female friend.

"I know, it's just… he makes me so made sometimes! I just want to hit him over the head with a book. But… I just don't know what to do Tera. I don't want to leave things unsaid… but I don't want our friendship ruined and end up putting poor Harry in the middle." Hermione said, resting her forehead against the book she was reading with a groan.

"I completely understand Mione, honestly I do. You just have to know what you want, take a chance and let the cards land as they may." Tera said, wishing she could take her own advice.

Hermione looked up with a small smile, her eyes full of sympathy for Tera and her situation. "Thanks Tera, I'm sorry I can't be much help with your Fred issues. Seems Weasley men are a bit dense huh?"

"Well at least ours anyways." Tera said with a small chuckle, glad she had a girl to talk to about this. George was great and all, but he didn't know how it felt as well as Hermione did.

When lessons started back up things took on their normal routine, wake up, head to class, take notes, change class, go to lunch, laugh with the boys, head to class, ignore Snape's snide remarks, change class, head to dinner, spend time with the boys and then head to bed. Completely routine and it annoyed Tera to no end; she hated how Fred seemed like Christmas hadn't affected him in the least, yet if he so much as brushed against her shocks of electricity seemed to dance across her skin.

Instead of dwelling on how confusing things were between her and Fred, Tera instead worried about Hagrid, especially after what she read in the paper.

_DUMBLEDORE'S GIANT MISTAKE_

_Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures._

_Rubeus Hagrid, who admits to being expelled from Hogwarts in his third year, has enjoyed the position of gamekeeper at the school ever since a job secured for him by Dumbledore. Last year, however, Hagrid used his mysterious influence over the headmaster to secure the additional post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher, over the heads of many better-qualified candidates._

_An alarmingly large and ferocious-looking man, Hagrid has been using his newfound authority to terrify the students in his care with a succession of horrific creatures. While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being "very frightening." 'I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a_

_bad bite off a flobberworm," says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. "We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything."_

_Hagrid has no intention of ceasing his campaign of intimidation, however. In conversation with a Daily Prophet reporter last month, he admitted breeding creatures he has dubbed "Blast-Ended Skrewts," highly dangerous crosses between manti-cores and fire-crabs. The creation of new breeds of magical creature is, of course, an activity usually closely observed by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Hagrid, however, considers himself to be above such petty restrictions._

"_I was just having some fun," he says, before hastily changing the subject. As if this were not enough, the Daily Prophet has now unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not - as he has always pretended - a pure-blood wizard. He is not, in fact, even pure human. His mother, we can exclusively reveal, is none other than the giantess Fridwulfa, whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Bloodthirsty and brutal, the giants brought themselves to the point of extinction by_

_warring amongst themselves during the last century. The handful that remained joined the ranks of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and were responsible for some of the worst mass Muggle killings of his reign of terror._

_While many of the giants who served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were killed by Aurors working against the Dark Side, Fridwulfa was not among them. It is possible she escaped to one of the giant communities still existing in foreign mountain ranges. If his antics during Care of Magical Creatures lessons are any guide, however, Fridwulfa's son appears to have inherited her brutal nature._

_In a bizarre twist, Hagrid is reputed to have developed a close friendship with the boy who brought around You-Know-Who's fall from power - thereby driving Hagrid's own mother, like the rest of You-Know-Who's supporters, into hiding. Perhaps Harry Potter is unaware of the unpleasant truth about his large friend – but Albus Dumbledore surely has a duty to ensure that Harry Potter, along with his fellow students, is warned about the dangers of associating with part-giants._

By the time she finished reading, Tera was shaking with anger, all she wanted to do was find that boorish Skeeter woman and squash her like the little cockroach she is. Instead though she waited until after dinner and went knocking on Hagrid's door, Fang's booming barks answering her.

"Hagrid, please open the door!" she yelled, hammering on the door for another fifteen minutes, even going so far as to shifting into her Animagus form and pawing at the door, hoping his caring nature for animals might make him come out, but no luck. She could hear Fang clawing at the door and whining, but that was the only noise coming from inside.

Tera shifted back and stomped her way up into the castle, hating how prejudiced the world could be. "Someone seriously needs to get him out of this funk. Those of us who like him wouldn't care if he was half troll, let alone half giant!" she grumbled, heading to the library to spend some time with Hermione and work on an assignment for Arithmancy.

There was a Hogsmeade visit halfway through January and Tera made plans to go with Hermione, Harry and Ron, the twins had some things that they wanted to do, promising to make it up to Tera another time. They all left the castle together on Saturday and set off through the cold, wet grounds toward the gates.

As they passed the Durmstrang ship moored in the lake, they saw Viktor Krum emerge onto the deck, dressed in nothing but swimming trunks. He was very skinny indeed, but apparently a lot tougher than he looked, because he climbed up onto the side of the ship, stretched out his arms, and dived, right into the lake.

"He's mad!" said Harry, staring at Krum's dark head as it bobbed out into the middle of the lake.

"It must be freezing, it's January!"

"It's a lot colder where he comes from," said Hermione. "I suppose it feels quite warm to him."

"Yeah, but there's still the giant squid," said Ron. He didn't sound anxious – if anything, he sounded hopeful. Hermione noticed his tone of voice and frowned.

Tera patted Hermione's arm, a small smile on her face as she rolled her eyes at the way Ron was acting, causing Hermione to giggle.

"He's really nice, you know," Hermione said. "He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me."

Tera and Hermione talked about some of their more difficult assignments as their group made their way along High Street and into the Three Broomsticks. When they arrived it was as crowded as ever, people taking up almost every corner and talking amongst themselves, walking up to the bar they ordered four butter beers and looked around them at the occupants of the bar.

"Doesn't he ever go into the office?" Hermione whispered suddenly. "Look!"

She pointed into the mirror behind the bar, and Tera saw Ludo Bagman reflected there, sitting in a shadowy corner with a bunch of goblins. Bagman was talking very fast in a low voice to the goblins, all of whom had their arms crossed and were looking rather menacing.

It struck Tera as odd that Bagman would be talking with goblins, they were known to not like dealing much with wizards, and these ones seemed to greatly dislike Bagman indeed. Watching Bagman in the mirror he looked as though his stress levels were through the roof, the goblins growled something at him that made him adjust his collar in a nervous way. Suddenly though Bagman happened to glance over at the bar, seeing Harry standing there with them he stood up.

"In a moment, in a moment!" Tera heard him say brusquely to the goblins, and Bagman hurried through the pub toward Harry, his boyish grin back in place.

"Harry!" he said. "How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going all right?"

Tera grabbed her butter beer; having a feeling of what was coming next she went to find a table, being joined by Ron and Hermione a few moments later. Sipping on her butter beer she watched Harry and Bagman's conversation, getting the general idea that Bagman was offering Harry help with the Tournament, he seemed affronted though when Harry refused his offer, he couldn't say much after Harry's refusal though as Fred and George entered the bar, walking up to him bright smiles and offered to buy him something to drink. Bagman shook his head in refusal, looking back to Harry.

Fred and George looked quite as disappointed as Bagman, who was surveying Harry as though he had let him down badly. He bid them farewell and quickly hurried out of the pub. The goblins all slid off their chairs and exited after him. When Harry came to sit down Tera excused herself, going over to sit with the twins, signaling Madam Rosmerta for a round of butter beers.

"Hullo boys, fancy meeting you here." She said playful, handing them their drinks and saying a quick thanks to Madam Rosmerta.

"Come here often, or is this one of those chance meeting that are just fated to happen?" asked Fred, returning her playful banter.

Tera smiled, a giggle escaping her as she rolled her eyes and sipped her butter beer. "Think that up on your own did ya?"

Fred gave her his most devilish smile and waggled his eyebrows at her playfully. "What can I say? I'm a natural born flirt."

"I've noticed as much…" She said with a blush, her heart skipping a few beats from that smile he had aimed at her. Focusing on her butter beer she was surprised when she heard Harry's angry growl, looking up to see what it was about, she herself wanted to growl. There was that horrible woman who had tried to ruin Hagrid's life with her outlandish story.

"Harry!" she said, beaming. "How lovely! Why don't you come and join-?"

"I wouldn't come near you with a ten-foot broomstick," said Harry furiously. "What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?"

Rita Skeeter raised her heavily penciled eyebrows, a smug smile on her face as if she thought his outburst was amusing.

"Our readers have a right to the truth, Harry. I am merely doing my-"

"Who cares if he's half-giant?" Harry shouted. "There's nothing wrong with him!"

The whole pub had gone quiet, all wondering what would happen next. Rita Skeeter's smile flickered very slightly, but she hitched it back almost at once; she snapped open her crocodile-skin handbag, pulled out her Quick-Quotes Quill, and said, "How about giving me an interview about the Hagrid you know. Harry? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"

Hermione stood up very abruptly, her butterbeer clutched in her hand as though it were a grenade. "You horrible woman," she said, through gritted teeth, "you don't care, do you, anything for a story, and anyone will do, won't they? Even Ludo Bagman -"

"Sit down, you silly little girl, and don't talk about things you don't understand," said Rita Skeeter coldly, her eyes hardening as they fell on Hermione. "I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl… not that it needs it -" she added, eyeing Hermione's bushy hair.

"Let's go," said Hermione, "c'mon. Harry - Ron…"

Tera watched as Hermione stomped out of the Three Broomsticks, her head held high and her fists clenched, Ron and Harry following after her almost sheepishly. Glancing over at Rita Skeeter she wasn't surprised in the least to see her quill scribbling furiously across a piece of parchment. "Hermione's going to have that boorish woman after her head next; I'd hate to see how Rita's going to retaliate…" Tera muttered, shaking her head and going back to drinking her butter beer.

Later that night, after everyone was fed and heading to their common rooms Tera snuck out of the castle, quickly making her way across the grounds she stopped in front of Hagrid's hut and knocked.

When Hagrid opened the door he was surprised to see Tera there, inviting her in he apologized for the mess and offered her a seat. "Wha are yeh doin here Tera? I woulda thought yeh'd be spendin time wit Fred an' George."

"I came to see how you're doing Hagrid. You can't let what the horribly boorish woman wrote about you make you quit! A great number of us would miss you, and Malfoy would be the biggest braggart in the world if you did. Plus I brought you some cookies." Tera said, holding out a box of dinner plate sized cookies.

"Tha's sweet o' yeh lass, yeh and Harry sure know how ter cheer someone up. Him and the others were all down here earlier, Dumbledore as well. Made me see wha' a righ' fool I had bin. No more hidin' for me, I'm proud o' who I am, and ain't nothing goin' ter change that." Hagrid said with a smile, a few tears leaking out of his crinkled black eyes.

Tera smiled, standing up and giving Hagrid a hug, glad he had chosen to stay and not let Rita Skeeter bully him away with her story. "I'm glad you're staying Hagrid, and just between you and me, if Malfoy says one more bad thing about you, I'm going to sock him one good right in his pointy face."

This caused Hagrid to laugh heartily, slapping her on the back and making her fall to the floor. Picking her up he apologized sheepishly, having forgotten to hold his strength. "Now don' let me be catchin' yeh doin' tha', I'd hate ter give yeh detention fer protecting me from Malfoy."

Tera laughed and smiled innocently up at him, her eyes twinkling. "I've learned a trick or two from a certain pair of twins about not getting caught." she said before bidding him goodbye and quickly making her way back up to the castle, glad Hagrid was coming back.

Over the next few weeks Tera watched as Harry started stressing, having no idea how he was going to completely the second task. She had heard from Cedric that it involved being under water in the lake for over an hour, and she could see why Harry was stressing, even Cedric had been freaking out, but he seemed calmer now, only nervous about the task and not the means of completing it.

As February twenty fourth drew ever closer, Harry seemed to be at the end of his leash, Tera and Hermione had to nearly force feed him to get him to eat anything and he was spending most of his time pouring over books in the library.

The day before the task Tera joined Harry, Hermione and Ron in their search for an answer amongst the stacks of books, her nose buried deep in a book about merpeople and the studies people had done on them, none saying though how the people had stayed under water long enough to study them. Though Tera was an admitted bookworm this was the most reading she had done in quite a long time, her vision was starting to blur slightly as she squinted at the tiny text in a book the size of a large suitcase.

"I don't reckon it can be done," said Ron's voice flatly from the other side of the table. "There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."

"There must be something," Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

"They have," said Ron. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate."

"Yeah right, like they'd do that." Tera said dryly, rubbing her eyes and picking up the next book in her pile to read, using the end of her wand to illuminate the pages rather than a candle.

"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There just has to be!"

She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before.

Tera sighed as she closed her book, getting up and going to retrieve more from the shelves that looked like they might be promising, though she had left the table she could still here what was being said.

"I know what I should have done," said Harry, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius."

This caused Tera to pause, her eyes wide. _What was Harry doing talking about Sirius? How did he know Sirius was an Animagus? What else did he know about him? How was he?_ All these questions were running through Tera's mind as she gathered up her next batch of books and went to sit back down, acting like she hadn't heard Sirius's name.

"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" said Ron.

"Or a frog," yawned Harry, looking as though he was about to pass out and start drooling all over the books.

"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," said Hermione vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their

Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember… you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office… what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it…"

Tera shook her head at this, her only thought being about how having your form and markings known could be used against you.

"Hermione, I was joking," said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning…"

"Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," said Fred's voice with a chuckle. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

"Yes but no one would ever be able to take anything you say seriously with things like that hanging from your nose." Tera said absentmindedly, not feeling like teasing as she poured over page after page to try to find something to help Harry.

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.

"Looking for you," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."

"Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised.

"Dunno… she was looking a bit grim, though," said Fred.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office," said George.

Tera glanced up from her book, a confused look on her face. If Ron and Hermione were about to get in trouble for helping Harry, wouldn't she be getting in trouble as well? What in the world is going on here?

"We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione told Harry as she got up to go with Ron -

both of them looked very anxious. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"

"Right," said Harry uneasily.

Tera left Harry alone to his reading around seven thirty, wanting to go out on the grounds for a run. It had been forever since Tera was able to throw caution to the wind and run in her Animagus form, she was always watching over her shoulder to make sure no one would see her, but today she just didn't care. Shifting to her wolf form she broke into a run, her fur dancing along her body as it was ruffled by the wind.

When she finally stopped she was by her favorite tree, though it seems she wasn't alone. Fred and George were both standing under the tree, staring at her in wonder. Trotting over to them she sat down on her haunches and tilted her head at them, wondering what they were doing here.

"Tera? That is you right?" asked George; a bit uncertain since he had only seen her Animagus form once before.

Tera nodded, the corners of her mouth twitching up into what resembled a smile.

"Wow… you sure are something else love." mumbled Fred, his eyes wide as he took in her russet colored fur and the white star burst pattern on her right hip. "So that's your distinguishing marking huh?" he asked, remembering McGonagall telling them about Animagus when he was a third year.

Again Tera nodded, though she seemed a bit shy about it.

"What is that exactly?" asked George curiously.

Having been asked a question she couldn't just nod to, Tera sighed, shifting back to her human form. "Well to be honest it's a birthmark."

"A birthmark? Why does it show up as white?" they asked.

Tera sighed again, resigning herself to having to show them. "It's an albino birthmark, a bit of skin that's extremely white compared to the rest of my skin." She said, shifting the waistband of her skirt just enough to show them a tiny bit of her birthmark, which stood out greatly against her creamy skin. "It burns easily in the sun too, that's why I normally wear shorts when I go swimming." she mumbled, blushing lightly as she pulled her shirt over her birthmark.

"You know having a birthmark is nothing to be embarrassed about. Heck the main way mum could tell us apart when we were babies were cause of birthmarks." said George with a chuckle, not elaborating on what those birthmarks might be.

Tera smiled lightly, standing with the boys, looking out over the lake serenely, she enjoyed the rest of the evening until it was time to head to bed, tomorrow was the day of the second task, and she really hoped Harry would figure out a way to accomplish it.

The next morning Tera made her way down to the lake with the boys after breakfast, wondering where Ron and Hermione were as she took her seat, pulling her cloak more tightly around her. She watched as the Champions all gathered at the edge of the lake, though Harry seemed to be missing. "He didn't give up did he?" she mumbled, worried about Harry. When she finally saw him run up to the judges she let out a relieved sigh, glad he had made it.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!"

And the Champions all quickly got to work; Fleur and Cedric both preformed Bubble-Head Charms as they dived into the water, quickly disappearing from view. Krum decided to go with a different method, trying to transfigure himself into a shark and only half achieving it, looking very much like a monster out of someone's worst nightmares as he splashed into the lake and disappeared as well. Harry was the last one to disappear, having waded out waist deep into the water before diving in, his feet greatly resembling fins.

And thus they waited, having no idea what was going on beneath the surface of the water. As they waited Tera pulled out her sketch book, making random little doodles of the things around her, including an odd girl in Ravenclaw robes who seemed to be wearing radish earrings. As it got closer and closer to an hour Tera started to get nervous. How were they doing? Were they having issues with the merpeople? What was taking them so long?

A minute after the hour was up Cedric broke the surface of the water, the Hufflepuffs screaming and cheering on their champion, Tera smiling and clapping along with them, noting that he had Cho Chang in the water with him. "So they took people important to them… Oh dear…" she mumbled, realizing that Ron and Hermione might be down there as well.

A few minutes later Krum's shark like head broke the surface, next to him was a sopping wet and shivering Hermione, her wildly bushy hair hugging her head and making her greatly resemble a half drowned cat. "Okay, so if Hermione is Krum's missed person… That means that Ron must be Harry's." Tera concluded, the twins nodding as they closely watched the water for signs of Harry and their younger brother.

Fleur was the next one out, just a few moments after Krum, though without her hostage, her grief stricken faces was scratched and a bit bruised. Even from the stands Tera could hear her wailing about her sister, seems she had a younger sister who was still down there. "I hope things are going okay for Harry…"

Harry was the last one to surface, with two people instead of the one he was supposed to retrieve, a young girl who looked like a younger version of Fleur, as well as Ron were floating next to him as the crowd roared and applauded.

Percy waded out to meet them, looking very white and much younger than usual, grabbing onto his younger brother and pulling him to shore, much to Ron chagrin. Fleur had broken away from her head mistress and was hugging the younger girl, wailing over her and kissing her face, tears flowing down her face.

Dumbledore spent a few minutes talking with the merpeople, talking in their native tongue before standing up. Huddling with his fellow judges to decide how the points would be awarded.

Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows… Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."

The crowd applauded politely, the student's from Beauxbatons looked a bit crestfallen.

"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour."

Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Tera cheered along with them, proud of how well her friend was doing, though rolling her eyes when the twins looked at her like she was a trader. "I am a Hufflepuff, remember? Besides, Ced is my friend. I'm not choosing between supporting him and supporting Harry. Either way it's a Hogwarts win to me." She said, still looking down at the lake shore where the Champions were all huddled.

"We therefore award him forty-seven points." said Bagman over the cheering Hufflepuffs. "Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."

Tera sighed, knowing the time delay would most likely take a good sized chunk out of Harry's overall score.

"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Tera stared at Bagman in shock, not noticing when the twins jumped to their feet and cheered loudly, at least not until the cheering started to hurt her ears anyways.

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Okay… So I feel kinda bad about how short this chapter is, but at the same time I feel like I would have a hard time adding anything to it. Lots of love to all my readers and I hope that you all enjoy the little bit here. Also for those of you who might not know, I redid chapter four and I feel that it was greatly improved from its original. Read, Review and I truly hope you Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; if I did there would have been a lot less deaths, and more happy endings. I do however own this story and my Characters Tera, her family and her pets. There are some excerpts from the book in this chapter, but I tried to make them from Tera's point of view and may have changed very tiny details in the story itself. No hating, just read and enjoy the Tera moments in their random abundance. I hope you all enjoy, and leave me a review. Much love to you, now enjoy the story.**

**Chapter Five**

**Annoyances and Surprises**

As they entered March the weather became drier, but cruel winds skinned their hands and faces every time they went out onto the grounds. There were delays in the post because the owls kept being blown off course. Tera was glad she had sent Thor with the package her grandmother had sent her for Christmas in early February; she'd feel horrible about sending him out now.

When she came upon some younger Hufflepuff girls giggling over an article in Witch Weekly her curiosity was peeked, glancing at it over their shoulders her eyes widened. Grabbing it from the younger girls- much to their protest- she read the article over, her anger building and scaring the younger girls off.

_Harry Potter's Secret Heartache_

_A boy like no other, perhaps - yet a boy suffering all the usual pangs of adolescence, writes Rita Skeeter. Deprived of love since the tragic demise of his parents, fourteen-year-old Harry Potter thought he had found solace in his steady girlfriend at Hogwarts, Muggle-born Hermione Granger. Little did he know that he would shortly be suffering yet another emotional blow in a life already littered with personal loss._

_Miss Granger, a plain but ambitious girl, seems to have a taste for famous wizards that Harry alone cannot satisfy. Since the arrival at Hogwarts of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian Seeker and hero of the last World Quidditch Cup, Miss Granger has been toying with both boys' affections. _

_Krum, who is openly smitten with the devious Miss Granger, has already invited her to visit him in Bulgaria over the summer holidays, and insists that he has "never felt this way about any other girl."_

_However, it might not be Miss Granger's doubtful natural charms that have captured these unfortunate boys' interest._

"_She's really ugly," says Pansy Parkinson, a pretty and vivacious fourth-year student, "but she'd be well up to making a Love Potion, she's quite brainy. I think that's how she's doing it."_

_Love Potions are, of course, banned at Hogwarts, and no doubt Albus Dumbledore will want to investigate these claims. In the meantime, Harry Potter's well-wishers must hope that, next time, he bestows his heart on a worthier candidate._

"Dear lord that woman need to be squished" Tera growled, her hatred for Rita Skeeter growing more with every article. Tossing the magazine onto the couch she got up and went outside, wanting to run off some of her excess energy. An hour later she walked back into the castle, feeling much more relaxed and calmer. Grabbing her pajamas and a towel she went to take a nice relaxing bath, then head to bed.

The next day was Hogsmeade weekend, the twins told her to go on ahead without them, that they had something to take care of and that they'd try to meet her at the Three Broomsticks later. So Tera made her way into Hogsmeade, window shopping and making a few small purchases, at half past one she happened to be walking out of Dervish and Banges, seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione heading towards the edge of the village. "What are they up to…?" she mumbled, slowly following after them at a distance, making sure they wouldn't see her following them.

The winding lane was leading them out into the wild countryside around Hogsmeade. The cottages were fewer here, and their gardens larger; they were walking toward the foot of the mountain in whose shadow Hogsmeade lay. Then they turned a corner, Tera quickened her pace, hiding herself behind a tree and peeking from behind it.

She saw a stile at the end of the lane, which seemed to be where they were heading. Waiting for them, its front paws on the topmost bar, was a very large, shaggy black dog, which was carrying some newspapers in its mouth and looking very familiar…

"Sirius…" she mumbled, her eyes wide. Just as she was going to shift and follow them though, Fred and George called out to her, running up and bending over, gasping as they tried to catch their breath.

"We've been looking everywhere for you, you were supposed to meet us at The Three Broomsticks twenty minutes ago." said George with his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths.

"What are you doing over here anyways love?" asked Fred as he stood back up straight.

"Oh… I thought I saw a cat… I always try to pet a cat if I see one." she lied with a small laugh, hoping they wouldn't question her anymore about it.

Both laughed, shaking their head with smiles. "Typical Tera."

She smiled sheepishly; casting a look behind her she noticed that the dog and the others were gone. Turning her attention back to the twins she looped her arms through theirs, leading them towards The Three Broomsticks. "I don't know about you two but I'm parched!"

Fred and George smiled and laughed as she led them along towards their destination, a skip in her step and a sweet smile on her face.

Tera giggled, knowing she looked silly but not really caring, just enjoying the time she got to spend with her boys.

Waking up before the sun had even risen, Tera quietly dressed herself in her favorite pair of jeans, a sunshine yellow peasant blouse and converse, and then she slipped out of the Hufflepuff common room. Walking up to the painting of a bowl of fruit and tickling the green pear, Tera smiled when it giggled and turned into a handle. Walking in she smiled and waved to all the happy faces that turned her way, waving Dobby over and whispering to him, smiling when he nodded and they got to work on Tera's request.

A few hours later Tera and Dobby quietly snuck into Gryffindor Tower, making their way up to the boy's dormitory. Smiling and holding her finger to her lips, Tera slowly opened the door and tiptoed in between the beds of a pair of snoring redheads. To her right George was drooling on his pillow, his hair plastered to his head on one side, and to her left was Fred, his mouth hanging open and his hair a total mess.

Hiding a giggle behind her hand she nodded to Dobby, then with a wave of her wand knocked both boys out of their beds and unceremoniously onto the floor.

"What the hell!?" they both yelled, looking groggily up at the laughing Hufflepuff. "…Tera?"

"Good morning." she said in a sing-song voice with a cheery smile as they sat up.

"What are you doing here… at 6am?" they both asked with groans, just wanting to crawl back in bed and sleep a few more hours.

"Oh, I just came up to…. wish you a Happy Birthday!" she said with a big smile, waving to Dobby who was standing behind her with a cake floating next to him. "Dobby, will you do the honors?"

"It would be my pleasure Miss Tera." Dobby said with a bow and a smile. Snapping his fingers fireworks shot out of the middle of the cake, forming a roaring golden Gryffindor Lion, and then exploding to spell out _**'Happy Birthday Fred and George!'**_

Tera smiled at the boys shocked face, holding out a box to each of them. "Weren't expecting that, were you?" she asked, knowing that she had definitely surprised them.

Shaking their heads- eyes wide- they accepted the gifts, wondering what she had got them. Opening the boxes both of their jaws dropped, Tera had gotten them each a top of the line broom servicing kit, the black leather cases that held them had their names embossed across them in silver.

"So… what do you think…?" she asked with crossed fingers, hoping that they liked the gifts.

"This is amazing Ter, you have seriously out done yourself on this." said George with a smile, getting up and pulling Tera into a hug.

Tera smiled, a light blush on her face as she hugged him back, glad he liked it. "What about you Freddie? What do you think?" she asked as George stepped back and sat on the edge of his bed.

Fred smiled, setting down the gift and standing up, her pulled her into a hug and just held her tightly to him, his face buried in her hair. "Thank you love…"

The blush on Tera's face flamed even hotter as she smiled and hugged him back, her forehead resting right above his heart. "You're welcome Freddie…"

Pulling back Fred looked down at her with a smile, his eyes shining with something Tera was starting to hold dear to her heart.

Tera smiled back, her hand resting above his heart before breaking eye contact. "Well this isn't all. Get dressed you two, today is all about you!" she said, bouncing towards the door to give them some privacy. "Oh, there's a box under each of your beds with something special inside. Put them on before you come out!" and with that she closed the door, but not before seeing their confused faces.

Hurrying down the stairs Tera got Harry and Ron up, telling them to hurry and get down into the common room before hurrying over to the girl's side and waking up Ginny and Hermione and getting them moving. Walking into the common room she smiled at Dobby who had went to wake up the other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and telling them what's up.

When Fred and George came down they were greeted with yells of Happy Birthday and the smiling faces of the people they cared about. On top of their heads were the silliest hats they had ever seen, a cross between a fools hat and cakes with either an F or a G on top, it was odd yet prefect for the twins.

Tera giggled at how silly they looked, so glad she had thought up those birthday hats. "Okay, so I have a lot planned today, I think you'll like it, and it will be great for everyone to have fun and relax." smiling she brought out her list and the day started, going from birthday breakfast made by Tera and Dobby, then they went outside and played tag and laughed like small children, enjoying themselves and letting the worries of classes fade away for a while.

Towards dinner time Tera and Dobby worked together to make the twin's favorite foods and then they all went up to the Gryffindor common room for the party Tera had planned.

"Great job Tera! Today has been so much fun!" said Hermione, sipping her butter beer and plopping down next to Tera who was giggling at Fred who was attempting to limbo under an oversized Weasley's Wizard Wheezes wand- without losing his hat- the wand would turn into a rubber chicken if he bumped it.

"Thanks Mione, I just wanted today to be fun for everyone. Plus it's a big day for Fred and George, I mean you only turn seventeen once." Tera said with a smile, her eyes following Fred as he walked over to the refreshments table.

"Tera, just tell him already." Hermione said, noticing where Tera's eyes were.

"Tell who what…?" Tera asked in shock, a vivid blush flashing across her face as she looked at her friend with wide eyes.

Hermione shook her head, a kind smile on her face as she looked at the young Hufflepuff. "Tell Fred how you feel. It is obvious to anyone who sees how you look at him that you're in love."

"Mione… just because I am… doesn't mean he is. I can't risk losing his friendship… just… just because I feel something more for him then the love of a friend…" Tera said in a small voice, her heart breaking in her eyes at the thought of losing Fred as a friend.

"Tera… you'll have to tell him eventually…" Hermione mumbled, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Tera! It's your turn to give the limbo a go love!" yelled Fred with a smile, waving her over, seemingly obvious to the girls conversation.

Tera took a deep breath, and blinked away the tears that were forming, a small smile on her face. "Alright. But no laughing at me when I fall on my bum." She laughed while getting up.

The rest of the night went off without a hitch, and when Professor McGonagall came in to break it up, Tera hugged the boys goodnight and made her way out of the porthole and headed to bed, nearly tripping over a discarded text book in her common room before changing into her jammies and crawling into bed.

Pixie hopped up onto the bed and curled up next to Tera, purring and nuzzling her hand until she started petting her.

"You are so demanding." Tera said with a sleepy giggle, curling around the purring fuzz ball with a yawn Tera started to doze off. "Good night sweet pea."


End file.
